Since freshman year of high school – aka the year I was asked to start reading works by William Shakespeare – I decided that I did not like Shakespeare. Sure, he was one of the most talented playwrights of his time and all of his work is pretty much a play or a musical or a movie by this time. But that didn’t change the fact that plays were something I could not wrap my head around. They were tedious to comprehend and the live action/movie/musical versions of them weren’t much easier to understand either – since they 99% of the time keep the same old English language that Shakespeare used. So prior the Twelfth Night performance, I was already dreading it. I read over the wikipedia page and discovered that it was a comedy, and I wondered if that could be my saving grace.
First, I was beyond confused as to why the theater was situated behind a coffeehouse, but that’s irrelevant. I loved the appearance of the actual theater. It reminded me of something that I’d read back in high school – how Shakespeare’s theater was pretty much all wood and of a circular shape. I could see the resemblance that the theater bore to the famous Globe. I was also surprised at how small the theater was. When the show started, I was already intrigued. The singing was absolutely captivating – loved the Marco Polo song – and I was immediately interested in the play.
One of the first things I’d noticed was the movements of the actors. They would often rotate around the room so that the audience didn’t have to keep looking at their backs – which Brody discussed at talkback. As a result, I was much more interested in the play. It didn’t seem as flat and two-dimensional as the operas or plays I’d seen in the past because I wasn’t staring at the actors straight on. Props to the CSC for setting up their theater like this.
I found the play to be hysterical. The whole time, I was just thinking to myself “Oh my god, when will they [the twins] realize the other one is alive and meet each other?” Out of everyone, I think my favorite character was Maria and I think Tina Chilip really did an amazing job. I found myself cracking up at her scenes.
Going back to what I’d said, I think the reason I was so drawn to this play was its use of modern language. They kept a lot of old English words like “thy” and “thou”, which I suppose are easy enough for people to understand and “translate” into modern English. I found that the modern English conveyed the thoughts/words of the characters much easier and it would make sense to people that didn’t know what the play was about beforehand. I’d only briefly read the wikipedia summary, so some parts of it were a mystery to me, but as the play slowly progressed, I managed to piece everything together. Which is a shock, because in most plays, I am completely lost.
Overall, I think that this was an amazing way to end of the class, and as a way to celebrate our completion of the final project. This class really has opened my eyes to the different forms of art in the world, and taught me how to look at art and be more appreciative of it.
