Award winning composer Tim Finn has written more than 12 new songs for Queensland Theatre’s production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night at QPAC later this month. Opening on April 24, Twelfth Night stars a roll call of Shakespearean specialists including the performance of a live band onstage under the directorship of Sam Strong.
“Our starting point for this Queensland Theatre production of Twelfth Night is how central music is to the play,” said Sam. This is Tim’s second collaboration with Queensland Theatre after the award winning Ladies in Black. “Music is at the absolute heart of Twelfth Night. It’s Shakespeare’s most musical play, peppered with songs with his lyrics, beginning and ending with music, and opening with the famous line “if music be the food of love, play on.”
“Tim really responded to the melan-comedy aspect in Twelfth Night and his music hits just the right tonal balance between darkness and light. It’s also incredibly musically varied, at times mischievous and playful and at other times heartbreaking.” Sam said Twelfth Night was a great vehicle for actors and comedians. “We have actors who know each other very well and already have chemistry: Liz Buchanan, Sandro Colarelli, Jason Klarwein, Bryan Probets, Colin Smith, and Kevin Spink.”
“It is wonderful that we have triple-threat performers like Kat McIntyre, Kurt Phelan, and of course the acclaimed Christen O’Leary who will be playing a cross-gendered Malvolio, or Malvolia!” The company will also be welcoming Jessica Tovey back to the studio after her tour de force performance Constellations last year. International set and costume designer Tracy Grant Lordt will also be returning to the company, after her work on Queensland Ballet’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream.
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