Nikki Shiels has just come from a sword fight.

The actor is rehearsing the part of Viola for Belvoir St Theatre’s production of Shakespeare’s swashbuckling comedy, Twelfth Night Or What You Will. It’s week three, and the rehearsal room is a flurry of words and weapons – “Our tongues are flapping,” says Shiels. In the midst of these linguistic aerobics and exercises in physical exuberance, she describes the rehearsals as “creating chaos in the mad world of Illyria”.

Twelfth Night Or What You Will begins from the debris of a shipwreck. The pivotal character Viola, washed up on the shores of a strange land, takes on the identity of her presumably deceased twin brother, Sebastian. “It’s a way of dealing with her grief and liberating herself from the predicament she is in,” explains Shiels. However, the play quickly becomes a topsy-turvy arena of muddled romances and mixed identities. A love triangle arises between Viola (as Cesario), Olivia and Duke Orsino. All the while, a host of bumbling characters plot pranks and engage in hijinks. “It’s a play where people get fixated on ideas and act out of character,” Shiels says.

Under the experienced hand of director Eamon Flack, the company has been growing the production from the ground up. “It’s been really fun,” says Shiels. “That’s partly to do with the rehearsal room culture that Eamon sets up. The transition from the table read to the floor has been one of the most liberating and fearless experiences I’ve had. We have permission to be quite extreme in our choices. The entire company moved to the floor at the same time, which created a beautiful camaraderie – this production is very much a company piece.”

While the play revels in slapstick misunderstandings and carnivalesque absurdities, there are some deeper themes that strike a heavier note. “The play is really about love and grief,” says Shiels. “It is a humanist play. Generally, the culture of grief and love is a bit more private and contained these days. I think the ritual of grief and the madness of love has been toned down throughout the ages. However, this production examines these themes in a way that opens them up for a contemporary audience.”

Throughout rehearsals, the cast has been exploring the nuanced relationship between seemingly conflicting emotions. “We’ve spoken a lot about youth and aging in love and grief. In a way, you can’t have one without the other,” says Shiels. “All of the characters turn on a dime throughout the play – there is pain because there is love.”

In the process of picking apart Viola (and her male alter ego Cesario), Shiels has developed an admiration for her character’s resilience and resourcefulness. “She is incredibly quick-witted – the way she is able to coin poetic phrases spontaneously. She weaves her way through this world of colourful characters and basically mirrors them in order to survive as well as teaching them a thing or two. Also, she makes these incredibly bold choices without knowing where she will end up. It’s an incredible lesson for an actor – to be brave.”

While Viola’s movement throughout the play is a classic case of duck-and-weave, trapped in the guise of a man, it can be difficult uncovering the essence of the character. “It’s a treat to play a character that has so many masks,” says Shiels. “At the moment, I’m trying to find the moments where she does flash her true self. It’s tricky and I suppose it’s a layering process.”

After 400 years, Shakespeare remains a ripe source of humour. However, according to Shiels, some of the jokes don’t stack up. Wrangling with iambic pentameter and rhyming couplets, there has been some necessary pruning and creative manipulation. “There’s a lot of wordplay that we can’t get our head around,” she says. “We’ve tried to have a bit of an attitude toward the text. Some of the jokes definitely do stack up. Generally, it’s a very English style of comedy – the humour is in the set-up and picking up the right words to emphasise.”

Capturing the comedy has been a process of bending and breaking the text. “It’s a real joy putting contemporary thought into the muscularity of ancient language,” says Shiels. “It’s hugely important to honour the language, but I think it’s equally important to treat the play irreverently. Of course, there are moments that have to be deeply felt but irreverence is often the key to comedy.”

The opening line of Twelfth Night Or What You Will is Duke Orsino’s well-known proclamation: “If music be the food of love, play on.” And true to form, this Belvoir production will ignite an atmosphere of festive foolishness. Crafted by composer Alan John, there are a handful of original songs and musical numbers that will be integrated throughout the performance. “We have yet to take on the musical aspects,” says Shiels, “but I think there will be a lot of fun and feeling to come.”

[Twelfth Night photo by Brett Boardman]

Twelfth Night Or What You Will runsSaturday July 23 – Sunday September 4 atBelvoir St Theatre.

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