Sounds Like Dunedin: Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night Lands In The 1980’s

What do you get when you cross a love triangle, a Vice Chancellor and Flying Nun? Find out at The Globe Theatre later this month.

William Shakespeare’s timeless comedy Twelfth Night (or What You Will) opens at the end of November for a limited season. Steering away from expectations, the show takes a turn created specifically for Dunedin audiences.

This famous tale of love, mistaken identity, and cross-dressing will be set in 1980’s Dunedin set to a backdrop of the University of Otago campus. Former School Principal turned performing arts student Brent Caldwell set out to bring his love for theatre and the Dunedin Sound together. The director completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Otago during the 1980s, then moving onto a career in education. Returning to University a few decades later, Caldwell has jumped head-first into creating local art for local audiences.

“In 1984, when Radio One started, for the first time I had the novelty of hearing “my bands” play their music on “our" local student radio station.”

It is fitting that forty years later as Radio One celebrates four decades of operation, the classics it has played on repeat would be featuring on stage.

“I still remember running out of our Dundas Street flat and heading to the EMI store in George Street to buy the Pink Frost 45 on the day it was released. All of us played it repeatedly on the stereos in our bedrooms. The neighbours must have been driven nuts.”

Caldwell’s vision as a director will combine the “timeless words of the Bard’s Twelfth Night with the seminal sounds of Dunedin’s Flying Nun vanguard.”

Thanking the Dunedin artists who have given their permission to use the music, Caldwell makes a point to also dedicate this production of Twelfth Night (or What You Will) to the late Martin Phillipps, who passed away earlier this year. Phillips had a profound impact on the Dunedin music scene, laying the groundwork for what would become the Dunedin sound.

Twelfth Night will run for two weeks from Thursday 28 November at The Globe Theatre, featuring local talent and a full live band. With Flying Nun classics from legends The Clean, The Verlaines, The Chills, Look Blue Go Purple, The Bats and the Straight Jacket Fits, the production will appeal to a wide audience. Tickets on sale now, with seats running low for some shows.

Dates:
Special Industry & Media Preview Show: Tuesday 26 November, 7.30pm
Season runs Thursday 28 November to Saturday 7 December, times vary

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