Picture the scene: Downing College. Blazing hot sun. A restless audience. Some folk-y guitar. Enter: Margaret Saunderson, dressed like Barbie in drag. Feather boa, pink dressing gown, hot pink fascinator. They deliver Orsino’s well-known first line with impeccably camp gusto: “If music be the food of love, play on”.

From this moment on, Downing’s May Week show was excellent. Though the first scene between Viola (Lorna Beal) and the Captain (Isaac Allen) was a little halting, the cast soon warmed up, shedding their caution with the abandon this Shakespearean farce so requires.

Viola is a difficult role: she has to be obviously in love with Orsino, but also convincingly ‘Cesario’ in her interactions. She has a lot to say, in long monologues and soliloquies. As the main character she often serves as a ‘straight woman’, reacting to the expressive farce of her scene partners rather than fooling around herself. Luckily, Beal shone: not a line of her dialogue faltered, and she had that elusive main character essence which drew you to her in every scene. Her utter confusion in the duel scene was a highlight.

“Beal shone: not a line of her dialogue faltered, and she had that elusive main character essence”

The same can be said of Olivia (Gaby Albertelli). It is tricky to play grief in a comedy. In some versions of Twelfth Night, I have found that Olivia’s sombre presence damages the momentum of the play. Albertelli did not fall into this trap. Her Olivia – sometimes sarky, sometimes sincere, always word perfect – hit the nail on the head. She captured a certain emotional depth, but not to the detriment of the play’s comedic rhythms. I wish we’d seen more of her. Her costume was also basically entirely leather, but she did not seem to break a sweat, so extra credit for that.

I rarely watch a show and think specifically about the strength of the casting. But in this case, the directorial team (Senya Kang and Aaron Gillett, with Izzy Lane) deserve special credit. I could not imagine any member of the cast playing another part; everyone was so well suited, and the styles of humour so seemingly natural to each actor. There seemed no weak link in the cast. It was a pleasure to watch two subplots that were as strong as the main Viola/Olivia/Orsino narrative. The misdeeds of Toby Belch (Bethany Taylor), Andrew Aguecheek (Adrienne Meagher), Maria (Lucy White) and Fabian (Isaac Allen) take up a hefty chunk of the play, and luckily they were a delight to watch.

“Everyone was so well suited, and the styles of humour so seemingly natural to each actor”

Cee Ellis-Stoneman brought a conviction to Antonio which fruitfully contrasted the dream-like world of Illyria, and Luke Quentin played that lovely monologue of Sebastian’s (“this is the air; that is the glorious sun”) with believable confoundment and wonder. I have never seen Orsino played as Saunderson did, yet, weirdly, extreme camp made perfect sense for the character.

Gender-blind casting is perfect for Twelfth Night. A play that rejects binaries, there seems no reason that it should be rigidly cast. This said, I did enjoy Alice Roberts specifically as the female Malvolia, rather than male Malvolio. Like with Tamsin Greig in the 2017 National Theatre version, this change introduced a specifically queer element to the steward’s attraction to Olivia, which made her alienation by the end of the play all the more galling to watch. Roberts’ descent from pompousness to utter dismay was perfectly played. Her elation in the letter scene was in equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking. Roberts is also great at maintaining character while not speaking: Malvolia’s silent, seething annoyance never left her face.

The only issue I found was that I forgot to wear sun cream. The rain very much did not raineth, and I left very burnt. And yet, I would have stayed and watched it ten times over: Twelfth Night was a delight.