What You Will is an improvised on-stage/off-stage road movie. It is a behind-the-scenes warts-and-all drama about a young collective theatre company of six actors, two understudies, two musicians and a stage manager putting on their radical re-invention of Twelfth Night, where the line between on-stage and off-stage characters blurs.

The narrative is driven by the relationships between the drunkard Oliver Dimsdale/Sir Toby Belch, the bombastic Ferdy Roberts/Malvolio and Ferdy’s wife Poppy Miller/Viola, as they each try to deal with Ferdy’s appalling self-importance which threatens to destroy the company as he strives to prove life has more in store for him than to be ‘just a travelling player’.

The drama and tensions between the characters engendered by his arrogance and the daily imperative of the show-must-go-on will feed into the film, mirroring the chaos and misrule inherent in the play.

The actual performance of Twelfth Night has been shot live and woven into the scenes devised and improvised by the company and the film makers, resulting in a film that treads a fine, almost imperceptible line between fact and fiction, drama and documentary.

Filter toured the Westcountry in late September and early October 2010, playing at the Tobacco Factory in Bristol, the Northcott in Exeter and the Hall for Cornwall in Truro.

The finished film has now being “Filtered” – with the clever use of sound and image meshing to create a feature film that reflects the ethos of the company and those involved.

DIRECTOR’S VISION STATEMENT