Twenty two girls wowed audiences with three terrific performances of “Twelfth Night” on Nov 29th-Dec 1st 2017.

To begin with the stage was covered completely with an enormous sea-curtain, made of patchworked fabrics in blues and greens and lit in mysterious turquoises and lavenders, as the audience entered the hall, to the sound of lapping waves. Gently rocking music, specially composed by Jonathan Ingham, hushed the audience, crescendoing to a storm as the sea curtain began to heave as members of the cast struggled out from under it, crying for help. From this imagined shipwreck emerged the Messina twins, Viola and Sebastian, forcibly separated. Thus the scene was set for a tale of love, lovelessness and mistaken identity. One of the great strengths of the girls’ beautiful performance was the quality of verse speaking: they really understood what they were saying, connecting it to feelings, thoughts and movements that all made sense, lifting Shakespeare’s words from page to stage in a way that wove the mad imagined fabric of Illyria, a world of cruelty and beauty where anything could happen. Their audiences were entranced. Bravo girls!