Back from a couple of days relaxing and enjoying in York -
can one have a birthday *month* celebration?
One of the best things while there was attending this great Watermill Theatre production of Twelfth Night at York Theatre Royal. The thing I love about creativity and
creative people is the way that something so often repeated can be replayed
again and again with a new twist, a new approach, a new setting and so becomes
something new instead of the same old same old.
I suppose I'm very conscious of this because the sort of
romances I write are so often dismissed as 'all the same' or - even worse -
painting by numbers stories! The truth is that in the hands (and minds) of an
inspired writer/director/actor, something you have seen/read/heard so often
before can take on a whole new edge and emphasis and while telling the same
story yet again can make it new and fresh and as a result parts of it ring
sharper and have more impact than before. For example, I'd never have thought
that a female Sir Toby Belch would work . . .
This production is reimagined in the 1920s where prohibition
is rife and Europe is still reeling in the wake of war. With a great selection
of energetic jazz music, and with an innovative approach to staging, the hugely
talented cast created a fabulous and fresh version of a play I have seen so
many times. So glad we saw it
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