Review: Twelfth Night at Shakespeare’s Globe “Laughter Goes a Long Way”

This summer at the Globe, Twelfth Night takes on a new vibrant form—the soft melancholic reverie is gone, arise a more an unabashed explosion of laughter and colour under Robin Belfield’s spirited direction. The play pulses with bold, gleeful energy that kept the audience on its toes, on Press Night!. ( no stiff upper lip here).

 

At the core is Ronkẹ Adékọluẹ́jọ́’s Viola—a vivid, quick-witted spark. As her alter-ego Cesario, she’s charmingly resourceful, her humor precise and fearless. While some may wish for a touch more simmering longing beneath her bright surface, her performance is one of the engines that drives this production. Her closeness—yet restraint—with Solomon Israel’s Orsino and Laura Hanna’s reawakened Olivia is playful and believable, though the deeper ache of hidden love waits in the wings.

 WIN TICKETS FOR A NIGHT OF JAZZ AND A GLASS OF CHAMPAGNE!! COURTESY OF LEEE JOHN HERE

 

The comic ensemble cements this as a night of riotous fun. Jocelyn Jee Esien’s Lady Belch (a gender-bent twist on Sir Toby) tumbles across the stage, hip-flasks at the ready—her delightfully chaotic presence is boundary-pushing humour. Alison Halstead’s Maria and Ian Drysdale’s Sir Andrew Aguecheek bring perfectly pitched silliness. Pearce Quigley’s Malvolio wins hearty laughs and uneasy sighs alike: prancing in yellow stockings and y-fronts, he stomps across the wooden O with gleeful arrogance—until his humiliation lands with surprising weight.

 

Visually, Jean Chan’s set is a feast. A colossal shimmering sun dominates the Globe’s open stage, its wooden rays framing each scene in baroque grandeur. Costumes mix African-inspired prints with medieval jester flair, so that Illyria feels vivid, familiar, and just mad. The set is both spectacle and metaphor: a place caught mid-revelry, beautiful yet slightly untethered. Simon Slater’s and Louise Duggan’s jazz-sprinkled music swells the mood, bringing life to every chorus and fool’s tune—especially in the playful hands of Jos Vantyler’s limber, mischievous Feste.

 

The production isn’t without its imbalances. At times, the fun shoves aside the darker undertones—Viola’s grief at her lost brother, Sebastian’s confusion, the sting behind Malvolio’s fall—yet the cast—Kwami Odoom’s earnest Sebastian, Max Keeble’s devoted Antonio—remind us that emotional depth still flickers in the edges.

Belfield direction does away with somber meditation. He wrangles Shakespeare’s text into a modern, inclusive romp, where audience and performers share the chaos and the charm, it was Press Night at The Globe and to have such continuous engagement and laughter was unusual.

 

 

 

In short: this Twelfth Night is a feast of performance and design, anchored by a rounded ensemble and lifted by Ronkẹ’s incandescent Viola. It may forgo the shadows of longing, but in return, it shares the kind of laughter that lingers. As we were leaving the theatre I overheard someone say “I needed that”.  Mission accomplished!!

---

Cast & Creative Team

• 
  

  Director: Robin Belfield

  
  
• 
  

  Set & Costume Design: Jean Chan

  
  
• 
  

  Music & Musical Direction: Simon Slater & Louise Duggan

  
  
• 
  

  Cast: Ronkẹ Adékọluẹ́jọ́ (Viola), Solomon Israel (Orsino), Laura Hanna (Olivia), Jocelyn Jee Esien (Lady Belch), Ian Drysdale (Sir Andrew), Alison Halstead (Maria), Pearce Quigley (Malvolio), Kwami Odoom (Sebastian), Max Keeble (Antonio), Jos Vantyler (Feste)