Scena Mundi to Transform The French Protestant Church for TWELFTH NIGHT

Shakespeare's much-loved comedy TWELFTH NIGHT is being given a fashion makeover at Scena Mundi this Spring. This three-week run will be a bold and finely crafted production that takes the Elizabethan style to a church catwalk.

Performances play The French Protestant Church, 8-9 Soho Square, London W1D 3QD Tuesday 22nd March - Saturday 9th April 2016. Press night is slated for Wednesday 23rd March, 7.30pm.

Shipwrecked on the shores of Illyria and believing her brother Sebastian to be drowned, Viola decides to don men's clothes to serve Orsino. Under the name of Cesario, she soon becomes a favourite of the young Duke and finds herself caught in a strange love triangle where 'all is not what it is'.

Since its first performance on the day of the Epiphany in 1601, the lightness, fun and elegance of TWELFTH NIGHT have made it a favourite of theatregoers. The world of Illyria is one of disguise and narcissism where madness lurks under the surface. Viola's arrival creates chaos and forces all to see beyond appearances to find their true identities.

Scena Mundi's production focuses on the bitter-sweet mood of the comedy to enhance all its diverse aspects. Combining very precise work on text with highly elaborate costumes and clear story-telling, their TWELFTH NIGHT is an aesthetic rendition of a multi-facetted play about love, unruliness and self-discovery.

Director Cecilia Dorland comments, I love the subtlety and elegance of TWELFTH NIGHT and the richness of its language. For this production, I want to create a shimmering world of mirrors and illusions where the nature of true love is deformed in many conflicting reflections. TWELFTH NIGHT's appeal lies in its wit and lightness and that's what I'll encourage my cast to explore. It is a play in which nothing is too serious, yet all leads to vital decisions and self-knowledge, a play in which appearances are all important, yet depth of feeling is what matters in the end. I hope audiences will accept the challenge to come and see their own image in this shimmering mirror.

The French Protestant church is a hidden gem in the heart of Soho that offers a fresh challenge for Scena Mundi. Embracing the warm and imposing building the company will work with it to produce a show that is all the more powerful for being in this unusual setting.

IF YOU GO:

TWELFTH NIGHT by Scena Mundi

Tuesday 22nd March - - Saturday 9th April 2016
(Monday - Saturday, 7.30pm and Saturday matinees, 2.30pm)

Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes (including interval)

Tickets are available priced £20 (£12.50 concessions).
Available from www.scenamundi.co.uk.

Cecilia founded Scena Mundi Theatre in 2011. She has worked as a theatre practitioner and academic in London (she spent two years working as a researcher for Shakespeare's Globe) and started directing professionally in 2005. Her credits for Scena Mundi (previously known as Little Spaniel Theatre) include: Leocadia (Landor Theatre), John Lyly's Love Metamorphosis (The Pentameters, Hampstead), Everyman, Murder in the Cathedral, Richard II and Edward II (all at St Bartholomew the Great, City of London) and Volpone (The Brockley Jack). Cecilia is very proud of Scena Mundi as it is beginning to shape like a modern version of the 'rep' companies of old. She wants to create a faithful troup of artists working on beautiful stagings which inspire them as much as their audiences. The faithful rendering of literature with the nurture and enjoyment of the artists at the core of the process is the ethos she tries to follow.

Scena Mundi was founded by Cecilia Dorland in 2011. Its name, the 'World Stage' or 'Stage of the World', takes its origins from the medieval and Renaissance notion of Theatrum Mundi and roots their work in the European dramatic tradition born in ancient Greece.