Matt Maltese Scores Twelfth Night

Matt Maltese has been announced as the composer for the new Royal Shakespeare Company winter production of Twelfth Night. Maltese is a Canadian/English singer/songwriter, for whom this will be his first foray into theatre. He is probably best known for his song ‘As The World Caves In’ which went viral on TikTok for its clashing harmonies and doomsday inspired lyrics.

However, Maltese is a comedic writer, musing in ‘Nightclub Love’, “I bought cranberry vodka / "It's good for your bladder" / When you said that I knew / That I want you”, so his writing will fit nicely with the romantic comedy genres of William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. He even has a song called ‘Rom Com Gone Wrong’ which could describe the plot in a pinch. 

If you think you don’t know the story of Twelfth Night, remember that 2006’s She’s the Man is an adaptation of the tale. The story follows Viola, who masquerades as a man, who falls in love with the Duke. There’s also a play within the play, where some minor characters try to impress the royalty and provide the big comedy beats of Twelfth Night.

“It was especially a lovely challenge to fit sort of iambic pentameter and rhyme schemes that are quite different to modern music into songs,” says Maltese, in an exclusive video by the Royal Shakespeare Company. This infers that Shakespeare’s words are set to music in this adaptation rather than Maltese writing incidental and solely instrumental songs.

As well as composing music for the play, Maltese has also written an original Christmas song for the show. There are no plans for the music to be released on streaming sites or physically, so if you want to hear the music he’s written you’ll have to be lucky enough to see Twelfth Night in person and it’s only running between December 5th and January 18th. Although, there are some performances listed as being filmed on the booking website, so there may be a filmed version of the performance released at a later date. 

Iona Rose Wheeler

@iona.rosew

Image: Jonny Ruff