THE Miracle Theatre summer show is a perennial favourite with audiences across the south and west, and this year’s production, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, is no exception. Now returned to its home county of Cornwall for the last 2025 performances, the final cross-border show was at Sandford Orcas on the perfect evening of 2nd August, the third show with traditional Dorset promoters Artsreach.

It all starts with the audience participating as passengers on a liner … and there’s a storm brewing. Director Sally Crooks has moved the action into the days of hedonism, careless drinking and general licentious behaviour of the 21st century. On board ship Viola and her brother Sebastian are galley staff, and as we know, they are (a) alike as two peas in a pod) and (b) separated by the crashing waves. Viola, she of the Willow Cabin speech, is washed up in Illyria, where the louche and lovelorn Duke Orsino is immersed in pining for Olivia, who has refused to see any man while she mourns for her dead brother.

Viola, who, unexpectedly takes on not only the guise of a boy but a rude boy at that, falls for Orsino, and is sent by him to woo Olivia, who (improbably) falls for this shouty, gesticulating “boy”.

The sub plot is of Olivia’s cousin, the fun-loving, hard drinking, self-obsessed Sir Toby, his chum the gormless Sir Andrew (in Illyria to woo Olivia!) the maid Maria and the clown Feste. Then there is the prim and proper Malvolio, all too ready to believe that Olivia is actually in love with HIM.

In this five-handed version, the hilariously funny ­Benjamin Dyson, a veteran of Miraculous shows, plays Sir Andrew and Orsino, with new BOVTS graduate Pip Cook as Viola and Maria, Jowan Jacobs as an inspired Malvolio and a devoted sailor, Daniel Richards as a poignant Sebastian and a rambunctious Sir Toby and Sophia Dear as Olivia and Feste.

There are lots of changes to the text, many of them full of charm and wit, but a few rather over-egged. The Sandford Orcas audience, whose ages ranged from sub-tens to octogenarians, mostly loved the production and were delighted to see the company back with Artsreach in Dorset again.

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