I like that line (and many others) from "Twelfth Night". Shakespeare is having a little joke with us, drawing our attention to the fact that all this silly stuff is being played on a stage and we might think it's improbable, but he's hoping we're laughing, too.
This is our last night of "Twelfth Night" and I always arrive at this moment with regret. Even though it is an unbelievable amount of work and very stressful when you're trying to run rehearsals and everyone is so busy, and you're trying to find costumes and can't find yellow stockings for a six foot tall (plus) Malvolio, once the play is up on its feet, it is so gratifying. I could watch it fifty times and still enjoy it.
I know some of you had trouble understanding it (and some of you did not exhibit exemplary audience behavior, as I had asked) so here is a little summary after the fact. I think I have learned that when we do Shakespeare, I'll include a little plot summary for folks who don't know the play. It might help them appreciate it more. Especially the comedies which are often very complicated and full of wordplay.
Viola and Sebastian are twins. They are separated at sea in a great storm. Sebastian is saved by Antonio, a shady but kindly fellow and Viola is saved by the Captain of the ship. They both find themselves in Illyria, a strange land ruled by Count Orsino, a man who is clearly in love with himself, although he professes a passion for a woman named Olivia, who has recently lost both her father and her brother and is in deep mourning.
Viola attaches herself to Orsino's court, dressing herself as a boy in order to be able to walk about freely. Orsino treats her as his confidante and asks her to go to Olivia's home with messages of love from him. She does so and finds that Olivia seems to be more interested in her, the messenger, than her lord, the creator of the messages.
Meanwhile, Sir Toby Belch, Olivia's relative, is living a very dissolute life, drinking and carousing excessively with a silly knight named Sir Andrew Aguecheek, much to Olivia's displeasure. Toby has convinced Andrew that he is a potential suitor for Olivia and Andrew spends his money entertaining Toby and trying to curry favour with Olivia and Olivia's maid, the wily Maria. Olivia has a strict and prim steward named Malvolio (his name means "ill will") and Toby and Maria decide to "take him down a peg or two" by tricking him into believing that Olivia is passionately in love with him. They leave a letter for him that appears to be from Olivia (but is actually written by Maria) that asks him to smile (which goes against Olivia's sadness at the loss of her brother), wear yellow stockings (a colour she hates), and cross garters (a fashion she dislikes). Malvolio finds the letter and follows its instructions with hilarious and torturous consequences.
Olivia has a jester attached to her house by the name of Feste, who comments on the action, provides a lot of witty repartee and several lovely songs throughout the play.
It is a comedy so it all ends happily with several marriages and promises to make things right for Malvolio who has been mistreated cruelly by Toby and his followers. And Feste declares the play over in song.
Your journal topic for next week is to write about the play. Choose a line from the play that you like (as I did above) as your title. (There are lots of quotable lines -- one of the most famous "if music be the food of love, play on" opens the play.) Write a bit about what the line is saying.
Then choose one aspect of the play. It could be the set (a beautiful design by Mr. Price). It could be the music (an attempt at sunny beach/Caribbean themes). It could be one performance (you could get a program to check the actor's name if you don't know it.) You could also choose to write about one of the directorial choices I made, like having a mime as Feste's companion, or why I chose to have Orsino accompanied by a mirror. Then write about what you thought of that particular thing. It isn't productive to just say "it was good" or "it was bad". You need to be able to express why. I won't mind if you say you didn't like it, but you need to have "exquisite reason" for it (that's a line from the play).
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