TWELFTH NIGHT or What You Will

Bevington, Chapter 10

The Melancholy Comedy

Written, 1601 and performed by law students in 1602

Despite happy resolution to love story, play ends with melancholy

• Curse of Malvolio

• Sad song – “HeyHo, the Wind andthe Rain”

The Title Refers to January 6, the end of the Christmas season. In Elizabeth’s time, the Feast of Fools was celebrated between Christmas and Epiphany and had become a secular comedy

Two plots Love plot (Viola, Orsino, Olivia)

Gulling of Malvolio

The play is self-referential

As Fabian speaks in Act III “If this were played upon the stage, now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction.”

Characters

Duke Orsino is lovesick and counterbalanced by Malvolio

Olivia’s mournful love is contrasted to Toby’s love of drink

Sir Andrew is as foolish as the fool is wise

Twin plots intersect twice (3.1) and (5.1)

Viola is at the center of the play and has a parallel in Antonio who places needs of others ahead of self

Lovers are gently satirical comic portraits of Renaissance writers

Renaissance character types

CAST INTO ENGLISH MOLDS Sir Toby is

the braggart

Sir Andrew is the imposter

Maria is the sassy servant

Feste is the wise fool

Sources and inspirations

Philip Sidney’s ARCADIA

Emmanuel Forde’s PARISMUS

Barnabe Riche’s APOLLONIUS AND SILLA

THE MANAECHMI of Plautus

Niccolo Secchi GL’INGANNATI produced in Siena in 1531

Robert ArminComedian Will Kempe was replaced in Shakespeare’s company by Robert Armin, an accomplished musician and singer, Feste was no doubt written for him

Other speculations Speculation from final scene of

SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE is informed by scholar Leslie Hotson who posits the first performance was at the Queen’s bidding

Performed at Middle Temple on February, 1602...one of the few accounts of a Shakespeare play in performance during his lifetime

The Puritans The Puritan Strain might be references to

noted Puritans of the day such as Sir William Knollys, comptroller of Queen’s household -or- John Darrell, a Puritan preacher who initiated a war of pamphlets from 1596-1602

Language and Music

Love plot is lyrical verse; Subplot is earthly prose

Play is about finding answers and riddles and wordplay abound

One of Shakespeare’s most musical plays

Shakespeare wrote lyrics, music was provided by Armin and from popular songs of the day. Shakespeare wrote “O Mistress Mine” but “Farewell, my heart” was a popular song of the day

1999 production in NYC was called PLAY ON! was re-set to Harlem in 40s

Theme of Love

Love, Infatuation and Lust

- love at first sight

- the fooleries of love

- the melancholy of love

Hypocrisy and surprise

Reality vs. appearances

Real masks (Sir Topas) vs. psychological masks (Orsino)

Funny costume of Malvolio highlights the comic subplot

Carnival vs. LentCarnival vs. Lent “Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous there shall be no more cakes and ale?” crystallizes the battle between the expansive and repressive forces in the play

MadnessMadness runs throughout the play, Shakespeare shows how close passion is to madness which is also an extension on the carnival-like spirit of the play

Staging Challenges The many moods of the play

Where is Illyria?

Identical twins and the love triangle

The tyranny of the subplot

Poor Antonio

The miraculous ending

Twelfth NightOn stage

Elizabethan Relatively few memorable productions in

Shakespeare’s time

Late 17th and 18th Centuries

His least performed play until late-18th century

Samuel Pepys saw a performance in 1663

Dr. Samuel Johnson enjoyed it despite its credibility

First production of consequence in 1741 at Drury Lane with Charles Macklin as Malvolio

Transformed into a quasi-opera by Sir Frederick Reynolds and Henry Bishop by the insertion of songs from other plays

Sad songs were often cut in favor of lighter fare

19th century - Romantacism

In the 1820s actor-manager John Philip Kemble began the practice of inverting the first two scenes

20th century Augustin Daly’s 1894 production opened with

a spectacular shipwreck

1901 production by Herbert Beerbohm Tree featured an elaborately terraced garden inspired by photographs in Country Life. It is believed that he is thefirst to put Malvolio in a nightshirt for 2.3

1912A London production was simplified by Granville-Barker and also made the role of Feste more central and wise.

Other notable productions

Malvolio has become more melancholy

Branagh’s Renaissance production featured a wintry landscape

2003 Globe Production was all-male and very Elizabethan

Film and television 1910 Silent Film

First feature length film was Russian (1955)

First Shakespeare play to be broadcast by BBC in 1939

1957 Hallmark Hall of Fame production in America

1970 - BBC BBC production directed by John Dexter with

Joan Plowright, Alec Guinness and Ralph Richardson

1980 - BBC BBC production with Felicity Kendal, Sinead

Cusack and Alec Macowen

1988 – Renaissance Theatre

Renaissance Theatre Production by Kenneth Branagh and Paul Kafno (for television) with Frances Barber (Viola) and Richard Briers as Malvolio

1996 Trevor Nunn film with Imogen Stubbs, Helena

Bonham Carter, Ben Kingsley and Nigel Hawthorne

2001 Nick Hynter production at Lincoln Center with

Helen Hunt (Viola), Paul Rudd (Orsino) and Philip Bosco (Malvolio)

Spin-offs Your Own Thing (1968)

Music Is (1976)

Play On! (1999)

Anne Hathaway as Viola

NYC, 2009