Music for the Bard

By The Star - Brenda Harwood | Posted: Monday Nov 25, 2024

The Globe Theatre’s production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is infused with the Dunedin Sound.

Music for the Bard | Otago Daily Times Online News

Dunedin in the early 1980s forms the backdrop for a reimagined version of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night — the final Globe Theatre production for 2024.

Directed by Brent Caldwell, this Dunedin Sound-infused production brings Shakespeare’s love triangles, mistaken identities and witty deception to the University of Otago campus.

With live music and a local cast, the Globe’s Twelfth Night will include Flying Nun classics, recognisable characters, surprises, love and laughter.

The production will run at the Globe Theatre for two weeks from next Thursday, November 28, with most shows at 7.30pm.

It will feature a strong local cast, including Sacha McConnon, Maegan Stedman-Ashford, Thomas Makinson, Josh Black, Don Townsend, Daniel Cromar, Sofie Welvaert, Aimee Freeman, Samuel Kelly, Tomuri Spicer, Caleb Collier, Declan Viljoen, and Nic Turner.

A former school principal turned performing arts student, director Brent Caldwell studied at the university in the 1980s, and set out to bring his love for theatre and the Dunedin Sound together.

Featuring a full live band, performing music from Flying Nun legends The Clean, The Verlaines, The Chills, Look Blue Go Purple, The Bats and Straitjacket Fits, this production of Twelfth Night will have broad appeal.

Thanking the Dunedin artists who gave their permission to use the music, Caldwell dedicated the show to the late The Chills front-man Martin Phillipps, who died earlier this year.