Will Haddadi heads to the beautiful Trinity College for a hugely enjoyable, and gimmick-free, staging of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

Twelfth Night has established itself as one of Shakespeare 's most enjoyable comedies, a claim that directors Moya Hughes and Simon Tavener made sure not to tarnish when creating this wonderfully simplistic show.

Joe Swarbrick was fantastic as Feste, the crowd-pleasing fool, as he captivated the audience with his theatrical sing-a-longs and well-timed punchlines. Peter Roberts and Tim Eyres were no worse as drunken knights Sir Toby and Sir Andrew – their stumbling, boozy scenes being believably hilarious – and did well in complementing the quality performances of Eloise Sheffield as Viola and Nick Quarterly as Malvolio.

A calculated balance between laughter and intrigue was maintained with Maxwell Windich managing big laughs for his pompous, ostentatious portrayal of the suitably pompous, ostentatious Duke Orsino.

Trinity College Gardens provided a perfect setting for what proved to be a thoroughly pleasurable evening, with access to a drinks bar and the grounds of one of Oxford’s most aesthetically pleasing colleges. The venue itself, situated between two trees at the bottom of the garden, was nothing but a simple black stage with two floors and a vertical trap door.

The cast began the show with a host of symbolic umbrellas at hand and, other than Malvolio’s letter, Feste’s guitar, a record player and a pair of swords, props were a scarcity, a feature only adding to the importance of the cast.

Shakespeare’s plays have been performed so many times and watched in so many countless ways that it’s almost impossible for a director to make their production stand out without putting some modernist twist on it or drastically changing a main character. This production managed the rare feat of standing out without adding anything notable to the original script due to the simple fact that the cast did nothing but have fun.

All 13 members of the cast made their passion for the script very obvious and showed that they loved nothing more than to perform it and the audience appreciated this, relaxing and staying engaged in the story from the first scene to the last.

Inspired by Feste’s justifiably famous words “better a witty fool, than a foolish wit”, I now feel the need to sum up this fast-paced, frisky production in my justifiably unknown words: better a playful piece than a peaceful play.

  •  Twelfth Night is on until July 30. Tickets from oxfordplayhouse.com