by Kevin McNally, at The Drum, Birmingham on Sun 20 May 2007

 Just a couple of minutes outside Birmingham's ring road, on the side of the A34, the Drum played host to Phizzical Productions' What You Fancy, a modern adaptation of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. A young cast shone brightly under the direction of "Leylah" and the acting and dialogue was crisp and tight. The contemporary set was well enhanced with a very professional video outtake of a chat show featuring the two "famous" characters. The script, penned by Omar Khan (also starring as Mahesh) , zipped along and the implausibly good looking cast brought a natural energy to their roles.

Sharnpal Jeetley as the central character Vidya/Casim made an unlikely man in an even more unlikely love tetrahedron, but the part was nicely played and you've got to hear her "bloke voice" to believe it. Meenu Jassal played a very convincing Bollywood sensation Olivia Kapoor. Indeed both of the famous characters were really strong and the gloriously hammy overacting from Jas Binag playing "The Dhruv", The King of Bollywood, Dhruv Raj Singh was one of the highlights of the evening.

The main thrust of the story, though, takes place among the servants quarters, where ambition and backstabbing are happily alive and well. Bhavika Mistry as the fantastically materialistic minx Mohini – Olivia's PA, and Omar Khan, playing Mahesh Patel, the butler from hell were superb. The battle between these two for supremacy of the household was a joy to watch, and Mahesh's spiral into the desperately absurd stole the second half performance. The rest of the cast all deserve a mention, so I will. The role switching Robby Khela (Sunny/Disco Stu) and Nimisha Chavda (Bharti/Bhasanti) were excellent.The drinking scene was very entertaining and the cast's strong musical abilities really came through.  Aashiq Kumar as the simperingly rich Shahid Khan and Mark Khutan as Raja the opening Narrator, were both good performances and Pritesh Chauhan camped it up delightfully as Akash.

This show deserved far more than a three day run and it would be great to see it do well in London, where it's sure to be better attended. The cast were both professional and natural, the set and production were slick and everything went well. This was a great show.