Giles Woodforde previews a student production of Twelfth Night that is heading to Japan

Twelfth Night has, says The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare, been presented as everything from “unfashionable whimsical trifle to happy romantic comedy to bittersweet drama of social and sexual identity”. No wonder its full title is Twelfth Night; or, What You Will.

Countless directors have duly interpreted the play in all sorts of different ways down the centuries. One of the latest to seize the myriad opportunities that Twelfth Night offers is Max Gill, who is directing an OUDS (Oxford University Dramatic Society) production that will start in Oxford, and end up in Japan.

“There’s a line in the play which defines our approach,” Max explains. “At one point the Clown says: ‘thy mind is a very opal’. At the heart of our production is an idea of irides-cence, where everything oscillates between light and dark very quickly. I think it’s a play that really divides people — I think it was Samuel Pepys who said he thought it was the silliest play he had ever seen. On the other hand, people say you will only get to see the right Twelfth Night when you get to Heaven.

“I guess that what creates this iridescence and instability is that Shakespeare tells you so much about what has to happen at some points: someone has to fall in love with someone, someone has to find a letter. But at the same time a great deal of information is held back — people’s ages for instance, their status, their relationship with other people. That’s why every production of Twelfth Night is different from every other.”

Max follows that comment with a view of management that should carry him far: “The best director comes up with an idea, and then makes the actors think it was their idea.”

We are talking during a rehear-sal break in a St John’s College lecture theatre. It’s stiflingly hot, but final year student Georgina Hellier, who is playing Maria, looks as cool as a cucumber even though she’s dressed in a heavy-looking traditional costume borrowed from the RSC. “It makes you feel very professional,” she says, “And it definitely helps you get involved in your character a bit more. I have a leather corset on too! It is hot, but you get on with it, don’t you?”

But how about director Max’s assurances that the actors have been allowed to develop their own ideas? “He had a sense of what he wanted the characters to be like, which was very helpful as a starting point. But then, particularly as we explored the language of the play more and more, things came out that we didn’t realise at the beginning. Maria is a saucy minx: she’s a servant to Olivia, but she’s very much involved in the comedic plot between Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew Aguecheek. She comes up with the idea of how to punish Malvolio, who they think is too self-absorbed, and loves his position too much.”

Also very smartly attired is Frederick Bowerman, playing Orsino, Duke of Illyria. “Orsino is powerful in his world, he can have anything he wants,” Frederick explains. “That’s led him to be somewhat spoilt and self-involved. He wraps up his feelings, and sublimates his desires into this intellectualised vision that he has. But when things don’t go his way he gets very upset and agitated.”

“We definitely ramped up Orsino’s indulgences,” adds Max, “We’ve given him a harem of opera singers, so he really is the most debauched, sordid character you can imagine.”

After its Oxford opening, the OUDS Twelfth Night tours to Southwark, Guildford and then on to Japan — the Japanese performances are taking place with help and guidance from distinguished theatrical producers Thelma Holt and Cameron Mackintosh, both of whom are expected at the Oxford rehearsals.

“I think it’s very important that we also feel sorry for Malvolio,” Max says. “He does admonish wilful excess, and I think that might sit quite well in Japan. English and Japanese cultures are very alike in their approval of polite manners and formalities: things that Malvolio enforces ad nauseam.”

Twelfth Night
Bodleian Library
August 12-14, 7.30pm
Tickets: oxfordplayhouse.com
More London dates — oxforduniversitydramasociety.co.uk