Twelfth Night

Twelfth Night

Written by William Shakespeare
Performed in Russian
2003–2018

Shakespeare is obsessed with human love. Twelfth Night is a play about love and identity, about difficulties of love, about how our identity dissolves in love, about love verging on madness and fear and spiritual revelations. The love Shakespeare shares with us in the play is as cruel as hope itself. It makes us think of the delusions of passion, of the eternal “magical mirror” of appearances and reality. The striking detail is that Viola in Twelfth Night has a line identical to one of Iago’s – “I am not what I am”.

Very often Shakespeare writes about ordinary people in extraordinary situations. We come to the theatre to see Shakespeare’s characters fall in love, suffer from love, grant and reject love. We come to see the kind of love we fear, the love we all dream about, the love we need, the love we avoid, the love that is perhaps our only reality.
– Declan Donnellan, Cheek by Jowl Artistic Director on Twelfth Night

Produced by Cheek by Jowl in cooperation with the Chekhov International Theatre Festival. The first performance of Twelfth Night was at the Chekhov International Theatre Festival on 18th May 2003.

“As close to undiluted pleasure as this ambiguous old world allows”
New York Times

Cast and creative team

Cast

Name	Character
Vladimir Vdovichenkov	Orsino, Duke of Ilyria
Evgeny Tsyganov	Sebastian, brother to Viola
Mikhail Zhigalov	Antonio, A sea-captain, friend to Sebastian
Vsevolod Boldin	Another sea-captain, friend to Viola
Sergey Muhkin	Valentine, A Gentleman
Mikhail Dementiev	Curio, attending on the Duke
Alexander Feklistov	Sir Toby Belch
Dmitry Dyuzhev	Sir Andrew Aguecheek
Dmitry Scherbina	Malvolio, Steward to Olivia
Igor Yasulovich	Feste, Fool to Olivia
Alexei Dadanov	Olivia, A rich Countess
Andrei Kuzitchev	Viola
Ilia Ilin	Maria, Olivia’s Gentlewoman

Creative Team

Role	Name
Director	Declan Donnellan
Designer	Nick Ormerod
Lighting Designer	Judith Greenwood
Assistant Director	Evgeny Pisarev
Choreographer, Movement Consultant	Jane Gibson
Movement Director	Albert Albert
Movement Coach	Alexandra Konnikova
Music	Vladimir Pankov / Alexander Gusev
Interpreter / Literary Consultant	Dina Dodina
Company Manager	Olga Sharapova
Costume Designer’s Assistant	Natalia Vedeneeva
Stage Manager	Olga Vasilevskaya
Guitar Coach	Sergey Rodukov
Trumpet Coach	Taras Kutsenko
Technical Director	Vladimir Kizeev

Previous performances

Previous Performances

Date	Location
4–5 June 2018	Moscow, Mossovet Theatre, Russia
11–12 October 2017	Girona, Teatre Municipal, Spain
6 October 2017	Vittoria, Teatro Principal, Spain
11–13 August 2017	Beijing, National Centre for the Performing Arts, China
10 April 2017	Moscow, Pushkin Drama Theatre, Russia
26 December 2016	Moscow, Pushkin Drama Theatre, Russia
24–25 October 2016	Sochi, Zimniy Theatre, Russia
26 September 2016	Moscow, Pushkin Drama Theatre, Russia
14 May 2016	Moscow, Pushkin Drama Theatre, Russia
22–23 September 2014	Russia, Pskov
13 April 2014	Russia, Khanty–Mansiysk
3–4 April 2014	Belarus, Minsk
7–12 November 2006	New York City, BAM, USA
13–17 June 2006	London, Barbican, UK
June 2006	Oxford, Oxford Playhouse, UK
30 May–3 June 2006	Coventry, Warwick Arts Centre, UK
April 2006	Craiova, Shakespeare Festival, Romania
7 January 2006	Sydney, Sydney Festival, Australia
24 November 2003	Moscow, Pushkin Drama Theatre, Russia
1986–1987	See also – Cheek by Jowl’s 1986–1987 production of Twelfth Night

Reviews and awards

Reviews

“As close to undiluted pleasure as this ambiguous old world allows…Boundaries melt like ice cubes in August in the Chekhov International Theatre Festival’s blissful production of Twelfth Night… It finds an alchemical substance in Shakespeare that transcends the verbal.”
Ben Brantley, The New York Times

“Declan Donnellan’s Cheek by Jowl production has a dangerous magic… Miraculous sensitivity.”
John Peter, The Sunday Times

“Fifteen years ago, Cheek by Jowl staged an unforgettable all-male As You Like It with the young Adrian Lester as Rosalind and the Forest of Arden evoked by just strips of green silk streaming down into a bare space. Now on tour, the company’s boys-only Twelfth Night beautifully echoes that earlier Shakespearean romcom of sexual confusions… Imbued with charm, a gentle intensity, delightful flurries of farce and fresh interpretations… Haunting.”
Kate Bassett, The Independent

“We’ve come to expect daring from Declan Donnellan and Cheek by Jowl, but flagrant law-breaking is another thing entirely…magical…beautiful…Darkness and light, the dualities of good and evil, and the possibilities of transvestism are all explored with hummingbird wit and precision by Donnellan, designer Nick Ormerod and their astonishing Russian cast.”
Fiachra Gibbons, The Guardian