Two Northampton drama groups team up to create virtual lockdown adaptation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night

Two local drama tropes have come together to create a modern day version of an iconic Shakespearean play that mimics life in lockdown.

The Duston Players and CLICK Arts have both had to postpone plays they were due to perform at the beginning of April, so the groups decided to team up to make a virtual display instead.

Adapted from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, ‘12 Nights in Lockdown’ includes themes of false identity and unrequited love, but in a present day setting with a additional theme of online presence.

Audrey Tang, founder of CLICK Arts and producer of the lockdown play, said: “We just thought it was a nice way to connect and remind people that we are still out there.

“It was also a way to still do something good for charity, as we do a lot of fundraising with our productions.

“The Twelfth Night is a play about mistaken identity, which fits perfectly with 2020 and online presence, but people do realise in the end that values are important.”

The group of ten actors and actresses who have created the 45-minute play are hoping the entertainment will also raise money for Northampton Hope Centre, as they will kindly ask viewers to donate.

Audrey added: “We chose Hope because we wanted to give back to our own community. Everybody is local to Northampton and we wanted to help.

“Hope is also really empowering, they provide training and education and they set people up to reclaim their lives. Drama does this in a similar way too by giving people confidence.

“But creating the play was also really important for ourselves as well as it’s so sad how much people are missing rehearsals. Doing something like this really makes you feel better.

“It gives us that energy, builds us up and it makes you feel like there is a sense of normality out there.

“Even through lockdown, theatre still brings people together.”

The idea for the virtual play only came about a couple of weeks ago, so Audrey says it really has been put together in ‘12 nights’.

“We had our first read through on Zoom and then everyone recorded their parts in a specific way,” Audrey continued.

“So we have got all sorts in there like CCTV and WhatsApp chats.

“We had to think about where each person would record each bit, so we could make sure it all suited.

“We've got two couples in it, but other than that everyone else is socially distanced and recording from their own homes.”

Audrey, who is a psychologist and has been running YouTube classes for children during lockdown, was tasked with editing all the clips together.

But she says cast members have made it easier by sending in their scenes as soon as they had shot them.

“Each scene took around an hour to an hour and a half to shoot then I’ve been editing along the way,” Audrey said.

“So it wasn’t a last minute rush last night to edit it.

“We decided May 28 was a great day to release it because that was the date in 1923 when it was released as a radio play.”

The play is available to watch on the Duston Player’s YouTube channel and the group is asking viewers to donate to the Hope Centre, which can be done via its JustGiving page.

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