Today, I had the opportunity to see Shakespeare's Twelfth Night performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Let me start with saying that Twelfth Night is my favorite Shakespeare play. I love the comedy, the language, the protagonist Viola, and the themes of doubleness and mistaken identity. It is, like most Shakespeare comedies, a play where all of the confusion and conflict are quickly resolved at the end. Despite the absurdity of characters' quick changes in opinion, the play seems to end happily with all characters satisfied and all problems resolved.
A synopsis: Illyria. The Duke Orsino is in love with Olivia, a wealthy woman who is mourning the death of her brother. Viola is shipwrecked on Illyria and believes her brother to be dead. In order to remain safe (as women can't be wandering around alone), she disguises herself as a boy, Cesario, and works in Orsino's company. What ensues is a love triangle where Olivia falls in love with Cesario (Viola), Viola falls in love with Orsino, and Orsino continues to pursue Olivia. The plot gets even more complicated when Sebastian ends up on Illyria and everyone believes Cesario (Viola) are the same person. There is also a comedic subplot with the roles of Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, Feste, and Maria. These three characters all pull a prank on the puritanical servant Malvolio.
There's a lot going on here, but what I want to highlight is what made this production so wonderful. A statement: The RSC always seems to find something NEW in the text. The details in which they find new comedy and new specificity make the play so much more accessible to their audiences. As an audience member we are pulled into the world of the play because the actors take time to indulge in the language and find the humor. They take so much care in each line that we can follow the plot effortlessly.
Nothing is glossed over. Every word, pause, laugh is accounted for.
At Stella Adler my first scene study teacher said "Specificity is close to Godliness". What does this mean? It means when you're specific with each word, intention, and movement, everything becomes clear, precise, and the story is told more successfully. In this production, their specificity was impeccable. In Shakespeare, if you play the details the viewers are not only are able to become absorbed into the story but they can also then APPRECIATE the beauty and the intelligence of his work.
While Twelfth Night is funny, it is a complicated comedy because it deals with doubleness, mistaken identity, and the sinister darkness of betrayal and imprisonment.
Viola's disguise as Cesario evokes homoeroticism between Cesario and Orsino and also Orsino and Olivia. I LOVED that this production didn't shy away from any of the homoerotic aspects of the text:
There is a part of Viola that falls for Olivia when she's disguised as Cesario. Also, a part of Orsino falls in love with Cesario, whom he believes to be a man. This is what makes Orsino's marriage to Viola believable: he loved her when she was disguised as a man. Orsino marries Viola only when he finds out that Cesario, the man he fell in love with, is really a woman.
But the plain reality is: Olivia falls in love with A WOMAN (Viola) and Orsino falls in love with A MAN (Cesario).
Shakespeare, ESPECIALLY his comedies, are full of female friendship and homoeroticism. In the Renaissance, "Female Friendship", homoerotic friendship between women, was seen as a necessary step before women were to enter into a heterosexual relationships. So the fact that Olivia falls for Viola and pursues her allows Olivia to "get ready" for the heterosexual relationship she has with Sebastian (Viola's twin brother). As for Viola, using words of love to "woo" Olivia for Orsino allow her to indulge in female friendship before marrying Orsino. The specificity in this production allowed the audience to see the moments where all of these three characters identified some homoerotic feeling for one another that SURPRISED both the characters and the audience. We saw Orsino fall in love with his servant Cesario and Viola enjoy wooing Olivia. I LOVE LOVE LOVE that they made this present. Why? It's a VITAL theme within the play: homoeroticism, homosexuality, and the way in which all of these characters have homosexual tendencies (even though they end up in heterosexual relationships).
More importantly: this was common in the Renaissance. ESPECIALLY for women. But I am repeating myself.
Also, on the concept of homosexuality, I loved how Antonio, the pirate who saves Sebastian (Viola's brother), relentlessly professes his love for Sebastian. He emphasizes how much time they spent together and how he blatantly loves Sebastian more than just as a companion. His love for Sebastian, though unrequited, nearly consumes him. Once again, this production did not shy away from Antonio's passion for Sebastian which I feel, in most productions, is underplayed and overseen.
But what was so wonderful about this production was the ending: Viola stays in her "man" clothes and marries Orsino. Even though the text has Orsino asking to FIRST see Viola in "womanly" clothing, in this production, the last image before Feste the fool comes on, is the image of Viola (with short hair, and in her man's clothes) kissing Orsino. What we essentially have is the image of two men kissing. How much more blatant can the director be about homosexuality in this text?
It's vital and so overlooked. But what does this mean? It means that while the marriages are a bit thrown together, what this production emphasized was the pervading essence of homoeroticism and the TRUTH that all of these characters somewhat fell in love with someone of their same sex... even though they married the "other".
Lastly: the other overlooked issues is the darkness of this play. The play ends in marriage, but we have characters who end unhappily: Malvolio who is tormented and imprisoned and once released not taken seriously, Sir Andrew who does not win Olivia's love, and the unhappy marriage between Maria and Sir Toby. What does this production do? After all of the marriages have happened, Feste sings cheerfully and these four characters walk across the stage sullenly. The production does not overlook the fact that while this is a comedy, this is a comedy that deceptively ends well. Many characters end this play deceived and wronged.
Too many times have I seen this play, and many other Shakespeare plays, interpreted as solely having a "happy ending". These plays seem to end happily, but there are so many levels in which the plays are open-ended. Twelfth Night is particularly dark. It is twisted, melancholic, and violent.
This production left the audience with two provocative elements of this play:
1) Homoeroticism and the fact that it drives nearly all of the characters' feelings in this play.
2) This is not a happy ending. In fact, it's perverse because we have two extremes: happiness and true ruin. And we're left with the image of ruin.
Not all comedies end happily or as cleanly as we would like. Thank you, William. You are truly brilliant.
"I'll be revenged on the whole pack of you." - Malvolio's last line. 5.1
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