The Deceived is the source play for Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. It was first performed in 1532 by a literary society called the Intronati di Siena and, by the time Shakespeare came to write Twelfth Night 70 years later, it was well known throughout Europe as an Italian comic masterpiece.
Remarkably this is the British premiere - a mere 467 years after it was written. You'll find it a lot more bawdy than Shakespeare. This is a world of teenage sexual adventure, lustful nuns and horny old men.
I'm interested to see how The Deceived works because the translator and director Kenneth Rea taught me at drama school. He's a wonderful, very special person. I'm not sure where he's from, possibly Canada, but he doesn't strike me as being British - too warm and generous. He introduced me to a new side of acting when I was studying at Guildhall. It was a breath of fresh air, in terms of the horrors of an institute like drama school.
Drama school can take away the joy and impetus of why you decided to study acting in the first place. Ken introduced a bit of warmth and joy into learning how to act. He showed me work like commedia dell'arte, Theatre de Complicite and Japanese Noh drama, some of the most amazing things I've seen.
It was through Ken that I discovered how physical theatre can be. He's got a great knowledge of physical acting, and his version of The Deceived will be more sinister and bawdy than anything you've seen in Twelfth Night. Ken is a special voice in an unstable environment. He's a very special creature.
