Portland Shakespeare Project “Even so quickly, may one catch the plague?”
If the plague is love, and the object of one’s love is the Portland Shakespeare Project’s production of “Twelfth Night,” then the answer is a most emphatic yes.
Under the direction of renowned Royal Shakespeare Company actress Lisa Harrow, the Portland Shakespeare Company takes on one of the bard’s more complicated pet subjects; love.
“What has struck me most is how many times the word "love" is spoken in Twelfth Night – 87 times,” said Harrow in a recent press release, “So to me, love in all its complications is the overriding theme. There's Orsino's, Malvolio's and Olivia's obsessive love; Antonio's, Maria's, Viola's and Aguecheek's hopeless love; and Sebastian's amazed love. The Christian festival of Twelfth Night is the night where the opposite rules, and so the whirlygig of time swirls them all into a spiral of misunderstanding and despair until the truth is finally revealed.”
The “misunderstanding” and “despair” that comprise the festival of Twelfth Night, and the intricacies surrounding the nature and various forms of human love in general, is central to not only “whirylgig” plot structure of the play, but likely to the lives of many members of the audience. It’s often the case that we fall in love with people based on who we think they are, and not necessarily who they are in actuality.
In “Twelfth Night,” the shipwrecked Viola is in love with the Duke Orsino, who is also her employer and believes that she is his manservant, Cesario, and not, in fact, a beautiful young lady. The Duke Orsino, meanwhile, is in love with the Lady Olivia, who does not return his affections, but instead has fallen head over heels for the disguised Viola. This triangle is then even further complicated by the addition of the love interests of Orsino, Malvolio, Antonio, Maria, Aguecheek, and finally, Viola’s twin brother, Sebastian, who just so happens to bear a striking resemblance to Cesario .
Fortunately, in this adaptation in Twelfth Night, although the characters suffer from the “misunderstanding” and “despair,” that comprise the festival of Twelfth Night, the audience does not. Through the remarkable attention on the part of the actors (in particular Jim Butterfield as Sir Toby, Dave Bodin as Malvolio, Heath Koerschgen as Antonio, and Allen Nause as Feste the Fool) to the subtext and physical intention behind Shakespeare’s words (instead of on special effects and other possible distractions, as is often unfortunately the case in stagings of Shakespeare’s “shipwreck” plays) the audience is in on the joke, as it were, and comprehensively understands each individual character, as well as the inter-character relationships, resulting in an infectiously enjoyable evening of comedic Shakespearean theater at its best.
If the plague is love, and the object of one’s love is the Portland Shakespeare Project’s production of “Twelfth Night,” then the answer is a most emphatic yes.
Under the direction of renowned Royal Shakespeare Company actress Lisa Harrow, the Portland Shakespeare Company takes on one of the bard’s more complicated pet subjects; love.
“What has struck me most is how many times the word "love" is spoken in Twelfth Night – 87 times,” said Harrow in a recent press release, “So to me, love in all its complications is the overriding theme. There's Orsino's, Malvolio's and Olivia's obsessive love; Antonio's, Maria's, Viola's and Aguecheek's hopeless love; and Sebastian's amazed love. The Christian festival of Twelfth Night is the night where the opposite rules, and so the whirlygig of time swirls them all into a spiral of misunderstanding and despair until the truth is finally revealed.”
The “misunderstanding” and “despair” that comprise the festival of Twelfth Night, and the intricacies surrounding the nature and various forms of human love in general, is central to not only “whirylgig” plot structure of the play, but likely to the lives of many members of the audience. It’s often the case that we fall in love with people based on who we think they are, and not necessarily who they are in actuality.
In “Twelfth Night,” the shipwrecked Viola is in love with the Duke Orsino, who is also her employer and believes that she is his manservant, Cesario, and not, in fact, a beautiful young lady. The Duke Orsino, meanwhile, is in love with the Lady Olivia, who does not return his affections, but instead has fallen head over heels for the disguised Viola. This triangle is then even further complicated by the addition of the love interests of Orsino, Malvolio, Antonio, Maria, Aguecheek, and finally, Viola’s twin brother, Sebastian, who just so happens to bear a striking resemblance to Cesario .
Fortunately, in this adaptation in Twelfth Night, although the characters suffer from the “misunderstanding” and “despair,” that comprise the festival of Twelfth Night, the audience does not. Through the remarkable attention on the part of the actors (in particular Jim Butterfield as Sir Toby, Dave Bodin as Malvolio, Heath Koerschgen as Antonio, and Allen Nause as Feste the Fool) to the subtext and physical intention behind Shakespeare’s words (instead of on special effects and other possible distractions, as is often unfortunately the case in stagings of Shakespeare’s “shipwreck” plays) the audience is in on the joke, as it were, and comprehensively understands each individual character, as well as the inter-character relationships, resulting in an infectiously enjoyable evening of comedic Shakespearean theater at its best.
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