TWELFTH NIGHT or What You Will

1. TWELFTH NIGHT or What You Will Bevington, Chapter 10

2. 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”

3. 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

4. Two plots • Love plot (Viola, Orsino, Olivia) • Gulling of Malvolio

5. 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.”

6. 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

8. Renaissance character types CAST INTO ENGLISH MOLDS • Sir Toby is the braggart • Sir Andrew is the imposter • Maria is the sassy servant • Festeis the wise fool

9. Sources and inspirations • Philip Sidney’s ARCADIA • Emmanuel Forde’s PARISMUS • BarnabeRiche’s APOLLONIUS AND SILLA • THE MANAECHMI of Plautus • NiccoloSecchiGL’INGANNATI produced in Siena in 1531

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

11. Other speculations • Speculation from final scene of SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE is informed by scholarLeslie 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. Theme of Love Love, Infatuation and Lust - love at first sight - the fooleries of love - the melancholy of love

15. Hypocrisy and surprise • Reality vs. appearances • Real masks (Sir Topas) vs. psychological masks (Orsino) • Funny costume of Malvolio highlights the comic subplot

16. Carnival vs. Lent Carnival 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

17. Madness Madness 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

18. 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

19. Twelfth Night On stage

20. Elizabethan • Relatively few memorable productions in Shakespeare’s time

21. 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

22. 19th century - Romantacism In the 1820s actor-manager John Philip Kemble began the practice of inverting the first two scenes

23. 20th century • AugustinDaly’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

24. 1912 A London production was simplified by Granville-Barker and also made the role of Feste more central and wise.

25. Other notable productions • Malvolio has become more melancholy • Branagh’sRenaissance production featured a wintry landscape • 2003 Globe Production was all-male and very Elizabethan

26. 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

27. 1970 - BBC • BBC production directed by John Dexter with Joan Plowright, Alec Guinness and Ralph Richardson

28. 1980 - BBC • BBC production with Felicity Kendal, Sinead Cusack and Alec Macowen

29. 1988 – Renaissance Theatre Renaissance Theatre Production by Kenneth Branagh and Paul Kafno (for television) with Frances Barber (Viola) and Richard Briers as Malvolio

30. 1996 • Trevor Nunn film with Imogen Stubbs, Helena Bonham Carter, Ben Kingsley and Nigel Hawthorne

31. 2001 • Nick Hynter production at Lincoln Center with Helen Hunt (Viola), Paul Rudd (Orsino) and Philip Bosco (Malvolio)

32. Spin-offs • Your Own Thing (1968) • Music Is (1976) • Play On! (1999)

33. Anne Hathaway as Viola NYC, 2009