Scena Mundi joins the celebrations for the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare with a bold production of his work Twelfth Night, running at the French Protestant Church from the 22nd March to the 9th April.
Shakespeare’s beloved comedy will be given a fashionable makeover by the theatre company, in a production which takes the Elizabethan style to a church catwalk.
Shipwrecked on the shores of Illyria and believing her brother Sebastian to be drowned, Viola decides to don men’s clothes to serve Orsino. Under the name of Cesario, she soon becomes a favourite of the young Duke and finds herself caught in a strange love triangle where ‘all is not what it is’.
The chaos, fun and light-heartedness of Shakespeare’s play has made it a firm favourite with audiences since its very first performance on the day of the Epiphany in 1601.
Scena Mundi’s production focuses on the bitter-sweet element of the comedy to showcase all of the play’s diverse aspects. The production combines elaborate costumes with precise work on the text, to reveal a play about love, unruliness and self-discovery.
Director Cecilia Dorland comments: “I love the subtlety and elegance of Twelfth Night and the richness of its language. For this production, I want to create a shimmering world of mirrors and illusions where the nature of true love is deformed in many conflicting reflections.”
The play will be performed at the heart of Soho in the French Protestant church, that offers a new challenge for the company to work with.
Scena Mundi was founded in 2011 by Cecilia Dorland and its name, the ‘World Stage’ or ‘Stage of the World’, takes its origins from the medieval and Renaissance notion of Theatrum Mundi and roots their work in the European dramatic tradition born in ancient Greece.
Twelfth Night by Scena Mundi will run at the French Protestant Church (8-9 Soho Square, W1D 3QD) from the 22nd March to the 9th April. To book tickets visit: http://www.scenamundi.co.uk/.