Twelfth night - the Bard goes East

Stephen Beresford scouted India for a cast to make fresh sense of Twelfth Night

This is the first audition I've held in India, and the actress opposite looks far from convinced. I have flown 4,500 miles for this, talent-scouting for a production of Twelfth Night that will transpose Shakespeare's Illyria to contemporary India. The trip will take in four cities, 100 actors and four internal flights in eight days. Today is Calcutta. We're in a tiny conference room off the hotel foyer and I've just explained the plot of the play in great detail.

"I'm not sure those things would happen in India," she says apologetically.