The National Theatre truly is a wonderful place. They have recently started a program where they broadcast live performances to theatres across the UK and around the world. Tonight, I was in the audience of Shakespeare's All's Well That End's Well (and my friend Josh SAW me on tv!)
As many of you know, I am a Shakespeare fanatic. It seems to be the true "thing" that links my love for academics and my love for acting - it feeds my intellectual and emotional/artistic sides. Seeing great Shakespeare PERFORMED is truly a treat. I loved this performance for a variety of reasons. I did one of Helena's (the protagonist) speeches when I was just starting to really delve into attempting to act Shakespeare. And therefore knew this play very well and seeing it live opened up my eyes to aspects of the play I had never thought of before.
One of the reasons why I love Shakespeare is because he writes fantastic women. His women are notoriously intelligent, calculating, ambitious, emotional, and full of heart (some would beg to differ considering Lady Macbeth but that conversation can be played out later). BUT my one critique of Shakespeare's women is that they consistently fall for the most unappreciative, banal, and superficial men. I have found it hard to reason why an intelligent woman like Helena in All's Well or Viola in Twelfth Night would actively pursue with all of her energy a man like Bertram (All's Well) or Orsino (Twelfth Night). While this production did not resolve my question, it did, however, reveal an element of humanity in Bertram that truly led me to believe that he, despite his violent attempts to dispose of his wife (going to war and proclaiming she was dead), grew to respect and honor his wife Helena. It seemed that on the brink of his imprisonment he began to see how much Helena loved him.
Now. One of the other new things I found while seeing this play was the way in which narcissism propels the play's actions. For example, Helena cures the King and is thus allowed to choose her husband. She chooses Bertram who then refuses and the King is outraged. Yes, Bertram is a superficial boy who wants to choose his own love and cannot obey the wishes of his family. BUT the King's outrage is so monumental because Bertram DISOBEYS his orders. What starts as an insult against Helena (Bertram refusing to marry her) turns into a King's rage against Bertram because Bertram's disobedience defies the King's rule. In addition, at the end of the play, while Bertram reveals a sense of humanity that justifies him willingly staying with Helena, his shift, I would argue, comes from the recognition of how much Helena loves HIM. Not necessarily because Helena is clever - if he recognized this he would have willingly married her in the first act.
This narcissism in the play contrasts DIRECTLY with Helena's selflessness. She is a slave to her love for Bertram and sacrifices herself to ultimately win him back (literally - by following statements in a letter). Before this production I used to see her speeches proclaiming her guilt about Bertram's fate as a weakness on her part. For example, when Bertram leaves to go to war Helena blames herself - not Bertram's idiocy. What I see now is Shakespeare's attempt to both contrast Helena's blind selflessness with the King and Bertram's blind selfishness. But in addition to the literary contrast, what I saw now in this Helena was a woman who while intelligent, was truly a victim of love.
Shakespeare writes about humanity. All's Well That End's Well is a testament to how love propels and affects all aspects of every single human being. And while I still find it hard to believe that such an intelligent woman would fall for such a doofus as Bertram, I find contentment in Shakespeare's extreme portrayal of blind love in this play. How else could he truly portray selfless love without contrasting Helena's selflessness to Bertram's selfishness? The paradox allows us to see the core of this play - all consuming love.
Lastly, this play emphasized the fairy tale quality of the play. The set used the symbolism of a red riding hood, sparkly slippers, a scary forest, etc., to portray a fantasy world. The play itself debunks what we read in stories as children. The stepmother isn't evil and the prince doesn't automatically fall for you. While this is a story about the humanity of love it is also a play about the reality of life. It proposes a new sort of "happy ending" to the fairy tales. A woman can love and "get" her prince... if she's a smart cookie and has the ambition to do it.
So... there's my novel to you. Perhaps this will turn into a paper in the near future...
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