Mood indigo. Moments of blue. Hot spots of red. Play On!, a jazz musical conceived by Sheldon Epps with a book by Cheryl L West, is a blend of tributes. To Twelfth Night, whose opening line, “If music be the food of love, play on”, supplies the title. To Duke Ellington, whose numbers run through the evening as plot and permeate it as atmosphere. Also to Ellington’s reported synaesthesia – his seeing notes as colours. Ultz’s strong evocation of the Cotton Club, where black artists performed to a white audience in 1940s Harlem, is not painted in predictable monochrome: beats of violet and azure are framed by a scarlet proscenium arch.
This is not the first time that Shakespeare’s comedy has lent itself to musical reinvention. Kwame Kwei-Armah’s opening show at the Young Vic in 2018 set the drama to R&B, Motown and music hall. Still, this Talawa production, directed by Michael Buffong, is not so much a version of Twelfth Night as a response to it. A nice bit of name-play is at the centre: the melomane, brooding presence is not Duke Orsino – a titled, entitled nonworker – but the Duke: Ellington, who earned his soubriquet through his gifts. Several characters have vanished, though no one is likely to sob at the absence of Sebastian. What most of us would think of as the nub of Shakespeare – the speeches! – are obliterated. You have to listen hard to catch the few direct quotes: “Some are born great” gets a look-in, as does the playing around with witty fools and foolish wits, delivered by Llewellyn Jamal’s Jester, whose limbs are as elastic as his loyalty.
