Each year I see Propeller I get a little more smitten with them. I mean what isn't to love about an all male Shakespeare company that almost guarantees at least one appearance of a pair of bare buttocks?

Smut aside they have an irrevant, fresh approach to Shakespeare that I love often stuffed with joyous moments that have the plays rocking along.

First up is Twelfth Night:

Having seen The Globe's brilliant, traditional and very lively production with Mark Rylance and Stephen Fry earlier in the year I was expecting Propeller to ratchet the physical comedy to new levels adding their own trademark spin. But it turned out to be something I wasn't at all expecting and I liked it all the more for it.

This was a melancholy, almost haunting production of Twelfth Night which made the contrasting comedy moment all the funnier.  There were still moments of farce and silliness, snatches of modern tunes amusingly appropriate to the scene and flirtation with the audience but in between it was far subtler showcasing something more akin to the reflective side of love.

Relationships between characters I'd never noticed before or rather took for narrative contrivances got a chance to blossom away from the usual frolicking.

The initial storm sequence was done with a ship in a bottle and the twins (Viola - Joseph Chance and Sebastian - Dan Wheeler) born aloft by others in the company as if floating on waves. Then we meet Orsino (Christopher Heywood) in an almost Miss Haversham-style repose. There is a huge chandelier on its side in the middle of the floor and dust sheets over huge wardrobes with antique mirrored doors which would become the main set (for both plays). These acted as both entrance and exit points, doors to slam and hidey holes and changing rooms, tipped on their side to make tables and pushed to one side when not needed.