The title Twelfth Night inevitably tempts artistic directors at Christmas, although the nearest festive allusion is a jester called Feste and there is a pesky reference to the cruel duping and convoluted gender disguise of the plot being “midsummer madness”.
In Tom Littler’s superb current tinsel-inflected production at London’s Orange Tree theatre, that line is treated as ironically anti-seasonal, while Prasanna Puwanarajah’s equally but differently inventive RSC Stratford revival goes the whole yule log and substitutes “midwinter madness”. Samuel West’s Malvolio illustrates his infuriating Puritanism by snatching a Santa hat from a reveller.
