Regional Playmaking Festival – Twelfth Night (Abridged)

RSC Associate Schools’ Regional Playmaking Festival
Twelfth Night (Abridged) edited by Robin Belfield

Shipwrecked and separated from her twin brother, Viola washes up on a strange shore and into an even stranger situation.

Disguising herself as a man called Cesario, Viola finds work with Duke Orsino only to fall head over heels in love with him. But Orsino is in love with Olivia, who is grieving for her brother and refusing all offers of romance. Until, that is, she sees Cesario for the first time.

Add one ambitious butler and some practical joking servants and you have a hugely entertaining story.

The Roya Shakespeare Company’s Associate Schools’ programme is the RSC’s long-term partnership programme with schools and regional theatres across England.

The Playmaking Festival is a celebration of the talent and voices of young people from our region. Each night, around a hundred students from across the East of England will collaborate to perform an abridged version of Shakespeare’s hilarious story of heartbreak, hoaxes and hidden identities.

This year’s festival marks the culmination of the fifth year of the Associate Schools’ programme in our region, showcasing the work and partnership of a cluster of primary and secondary schools, led by Ormiston Sudbury Academy, one of the RSC’s Lead Associate Schools.