Twelfth Night or What?
The second in a sequence of five essays over different facets of the life and writings of Mr. William Shakespeare. This one specifically is a performance evaluation of The Twelfth Night.
Taylor Williams
Dr. Ditmore
Shakespeare
28 October 2004
Twelfth Night or What?
How do you take a theatrical production that is at least four hundred years old and lauded world wide as a classic not only theatrically, but literally as well, and present it in a modern context with a freshness to appeal to the cosmopolitan masses of twenty-first century London? Why, tilt the stage clockwise about twenty degrees and set it in modern day India of course. That is preciously what Stephen Beresford’s production of William Shakespeare’s The Twelfth Night, Or What You Will tried so desperately to accomplish.
The first impression a play makes on an audience is almost always tied directly to its set music. As the curtain rises over the stage, the audience is presented with a dark scene of a group sitting down avoiding the rain falling down outside. The angled stage is at once seen, and sets the scene for the remainder of the play. “I thought it seemed to frame the play and draw attention to it as in a picture,” explained Susan Wooten, “It was really good for the play, it inspired the imagination.” The slant did provide a strangely appropriate setting for the play that followed, which always managed to be a little off. Close to a quality production, and yet, always lacking in the key elements.
Acting between the lines is a phrase a beginning actor will always hear as their director pushes, and drives them to provide some semblance of quality acting. The theory behind the phrase is that the truest test of an actor is not his or her ability to provide the correct emphasis or movement while they are talking, but rather, to maintain that guise effectively, and proactively, in between the lines. The first few acts of Twelfth Night unfortunately saw a number of professional actors standing unmoving, with almost blank expressions while their colleagues gave their lines. As the play progressed, however, this juvenile faux pas melted away to increased intensity in the blocking in order to parallel the growing complexity of the plot. By the end of the play, the actors were finally responding to each other’s lines with consistency and plausibility. One exception did arise in the cast however. Kulvinder Ghir’s portrayal of Feste provided the highest elements of comedy for the production, and was the one point of the play where the acting was at such a level to allow the innovations of the play to flourish.
Acting aside, the production’s major attribution is the idea of setting the production not in Illyria, as Shakespeare had called for, but in modern day India. The textual note attached to this fact in the Norton Shakespeare reveals that the Bard was,
“probably not suggesting a real country.” (Shakespeare I.i) The openness that Shakespeare left for the setting acted extremely favorably for the group’s decision to transform it. In fact, the largest problems to arise from the Indian setting have to do more with the audience’s ability, or inability, to understand the Shakespearian language being spouted in an Indian accent, an accent that oftentimes appeared to be forced. Modern India provides an interesting setting for Shakespeare’s comedy. The remaining prevalence of the caste system gives emphasis on the boundaries created by class, boundaries that the play plays heavily upon. Director Stephen Beresford justifies his decision about the setting through the subtitle Or What You Will, “It sounds like an open invitation to me.” (Beresford, 8) Overall, the choice to set the play in India had little effect on the quality of the production. Lyn Gardner, of the Guardian, comments on the theatrical experience, “it often concentrates too much on concept and too little on the execution and performances.” (Gardner) She was not the only one who felt that way however. Ryan Dapremont also responds to his impressions of the invention of an Indian setting, “it had the potential to add to the play, but so many things took away from it, it lost its opportunity to.” Indeed, whatever additions that might have arose from Indian backdrop are immediately lost to unimplemented basics.
In his production of Twelfth Night, Or What you Will, Director Stephen Beresford attempts give a novel, modern approach to William Shakespeare’s classic by setting it in India. That proposition, however, falls flat on its face and no amount of novelty could save the floundering production from its many other pitfalls. The first element a director must start with in any production is the quality of acting. Beresford forgoes this to pursue innovation inspired by an increasing focus on the Islamic world. The result leaves much to be desired and the audience is left begging the question, what?
Works Cited:
1) Greenblatt, Stephen; Cohen, Walter; Howard, Jean E.; Maus Katharine Eisaman, eds. The Norton Shakespeare. London: Castle House, 1997
2) Gardner, Lyn. “Twelfth Night.” The Guardian Online. 28 August 2004, http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/reviews/story/0,,1292567,00.html
3) Beresford, Stephen. “India Meets Illyria,” Playbill for Twelfth Night, August, 2004
Interviews
1) Ryan Dapremont, October 28, 2004
2) Susan Wooten, October 28, 2004
Taylor Williams
Dr. Ditmore
Shakespeare
28 October 2004
Twelfth Night or What?
How do you take a theatrical production that is at least four hundred years old and lauded world wide as a classic not only theatrically, but literally as well, and present it in a modern context with a freshness to appeal to the cosmopolitan masses of twenty-first century London? Why, tilt the stage clockwise about twenty degrees and set it in modern day India of course. That is preciously what Stephen Beresford’s production of William Shakespeare’s The Twelfth Night, Or What You Will tried so desperately to accomplish.
The first impression a play makes on an audience is almost always tied directly to its set music. As the curtain rises over the stage, the audience is presented with a dark scene of a group sitting down avoiding the rain falling down outside. The angled stage is at once seen, and sets the scene for the remainder of the play. “I thought it seemed to frame the play and draw attention to it as in a picture,” explained Susan Wooten, “It was really good for the play, it inspired the imagination.” The slant did provide a strangely appropriate setting for the play that followed, which always managed to be a little off. Close to a quality production, and yet, always lacking in the key elements.
Acting between the lines is a phrase a beginning actor will always hear as their director pushes, and drives them to provide some semblance of quality acting. The theory behind the phrase is that the truest test of an actor is not his or her ability to provide the correct emphasis or movement while they are talking, but rather, to maintain that guise effectively, and proactively, in between the lines. The first few acts of Twelfth Night unfortunately saw a number of professional actors standing unmoving, with almost blank expressions while their colleagues gave their lines. As the play progressed, however, this juvenile faux pas melted away to increased intensity in the blocking in order to parallel the growing complexity of the plot. By the end of the play, the actors were finally responding to each other’s lines with consistency and plausibility. One exception did arise in the cast however. Kulvinder Ghir’s portrayal of Feste provided the highest elements of comedy for the production, and was the one point of the play where the acting was at such a level to allow the innovations of the play to flourish.
Acting aside, the production’s major attribution is the idea of setting the production not in Illyria, as Shakespeare had called for, but in modern day India. The textual note attached to this fact in the Norton Shakespeare reveals that the Bard was,
“probably not suggesting a real country.” (Shakespeare I.i) The openness that Shakespeare left for the setting acted extremely favorably for the group’s decision to transform it. In fact, the largest problems to arise from the Indian setting have to do more with the audience’s ability, or inability, to understand the Shakespearian language being spouted in an Indian accent, an accent that oftentimes appeared to be forced. Modern India provides an interesting setting for Shakespeare’s comedy. The remaining prevalence of the caste system gives emphasis on the boundaries created by class, boundaries that the play plays heavily upon. Director Stephen Beresford justifies his decision about the setting through the subtitle Or What You Will, “It sounds like an open invitation to me.” (Beresford, 8) Overall, the choice to set the play in India had little effect on the quality of the production. Lyn Gardner, of the Guardian, comments on the theatrical experience, “it often concentrates too much on concept and too little on the execution and performances.” (Gardner) She was not the only one who felt that way however. Ryan Dapremont also responds to his impressions of the invention of an Indian setting, “it had the potential to add to the play, but so many things took away from it, it lost its opportunity to.” Indeed, whatever additions that might have arose from Indian backdrop are immediately lost to unimplemented basics.
In his production of Twelfth Night, Or What you Will, Director Stephen Beresford attempts give a novel, modern approach to William Shakespeare’s classic by setting it in India. That proposition, however, falls flat on its face and no amount of novelty could save the floundering production from its many other pitfalls. The first element a director must start with in any production is the quality of acting. Beresford forgoes this to pursue innovation inspired by an increasing focus on the Islamic world. The result leaves much to be desired and the audience is left begging the question, what?
Works Cited:
1) Greenblatt, Stephen; Cohen, Walter; Howard, Jean E.; Maus Katharine Eisaman, eds. The Norton Shakespeare. London: Castle House, 1997
2) Gardner, Lyn. “Twelfth Night.” The Guardian Online. 28 August 2004, http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/reviews/story/0,,1292567,00.html
3) Beresford, Stephen. “India Meets Illyria,” Playbill for Twelfth Night, August, 2004
Interviews
1) Ryan Dapremont, October 28, 2004
2) Susan Wooten, October 28, 2004
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