Have read and watched this many, many times. It never gets old for me.

Love, love, love the theme of love. Everything and everyone at cross purposes, trying out and enjoying other roles and genders. This time I focused on how those characters on the "losing" end of things take their loss gently and with a certain reasonable pragmatism. . .the right way to take a loss. Don't freak out! Because a loss is just the beginning of your next step, just the pit in that tasty cherry. Simply spit it out. OR better yet, plant it.

And twins. Who doesn't love twins. Seeing this play for the first time in my teens was when within my heart was a desire for twins. Even though I was never going to marry and do all that stuff. Guess what? Yeah. They're perfect. Boy & Girl. They, too, love this play and pledge not to freak out if one of them goes missing - they will just start looking at the docks for surprise finds in those washing ashore alive, and of the opposite gender.

Anyway. 5 stars, for Wm. Shakespeare. Again. Will be seeing this at OSF this season!

n   “Journeys end in lovers meeting.” n

Fuck, I loved this: I heard about the play (watch She's the Man and you get it), but the original story is so much wilder?! We have a gay pirate, a rather cruel Catfish situation, and love-triangles so complex (thanks to the cross-dressing) that even the characters give up. Love, just play on.

But at the centre of this story are the twins Viola and Sebastian, who, regardless of a lovesick Duke and a charming Countess, keep trying to find each other. I’m certain Shakespeare took inspiration from his own twins, and in other places family-bonds shine as well.
Because why does Sir Toby drink so much? Does he try to cope with his dead brother and nephew, just like his niece? And apart from all the scheming, doesn’t everyone in Olivia’s household rallies to keep Orsino away?

n  n    Maria: "Will you hoist sail, sir? Here lies your way."
Viola (as Cesario): "No, good swabber, I am to hull here a little longer. Some mollification for your giant, sweet lady.” n  n

So underneath all the foolish shenanigans, love stands at the heart of Twelfth Night. It’s such a fascinating play: definitely a romance and a comedy, but with some bitter edges. Only look at Feste, mysterious hilarious Feste, who’s jokes can be quite mean (see, Sir Topaz).
And what about poor Andrew being played by Sir Toby? Olivia marrying Sebastian too quickly (how happy with that marriage be?) and Antonio, passionate Antonio, ending up alone.

Oh Illyria, you're a world full of miracles, music and some tears: what an amazing and multi-layered play you are. 5 stars, no doubt.

"Some are born great
Some achieve greatness
And some have greatness thrust upon them" oh Malvolio

There is tragedy. Viola becomes her brother Sebastian, and cross-dressing ensues. Orsino loves Olivia. Olivia loves Cesario. Viola loves Orsino. It all ends happy and well, there is marriage.

My younger son's primary school put on a production of Twelfth Night when he was about 10. Most of the cast was about as good as you'd expect, except the kid that played Malvolio, who was utterly brilliant. He was so much better than everyone else that it wasn't fair even to compare them. He just carried the show all by himself, and it was a triumph.

The teachers knew they had a star on their hands, and had decided in advance to record the performance. They said at the end of the evening that DVDs would be on sale for, I think £5 apiece. Like a good half of the audience, we handed over our money without a second thought.

But... oh dear! A day later, there came a shame-faced announcement that, due to a technical error, there would be no DVD. Maybe they'd left the lens cap on or something. I'm particularly annoyed, because I can't remember the kid's name, so I'm unable to find out if he did make it in show-biz. I certainly felt he had a decent shot at it.

So this one doesn't rank terribly high on the believability scale, but this is still my favorite Shakespeare comedy. It's absurd to have a set of fraternal twins -- brother and sister! -- who look so much alike that people who know them reasonably well can't tell them apart. Shakespeare may not have been entirely clear on the distinction between identical and fraternal twins or, more likely, he just didn't care. But push the Disbelief Suspension button here and just go have fun with this love triangle:

So besides all this Crazy Love, there's other excitement: a shipwreck! (okay, that's before the play actually starts, but still.) Viola washes up on shore, all alone in the world ... well, actually she was rescued by another ship, and the captain has taken a personal interest in her and is giving her some solid advice and help. But they're on the seashore! and she's kind of alone because she's lost her twin brother Sebastian in the shipwreck.

But life goes on, so Viola (prudently, she thinks) disguises herself as a guy, calls herself Cesario and goes to work for Duke Orsino as his page. And then she promptly falls in love with him, which is a little hard to understand because he's dejectedly mooning around his mansion all full of unrequited love for the fair Olivia, but whatever. Probably money, power, good looks his sensitive heart and kind soul appeal to her. All direct appeals for Olivia's heart having failed, Orsino decides to send Viola/Cesario to plead his case, because sending a good-looking guy (even if not really a guy) to speak of matters of love to the object of your affections always works so well. Case in point: Olivia promptly ... well, go look at the above chart again.

Also, in case all this lurve stuff bores you, we have some practical joking going on: Olivia has an arrogant steward named Malvolio, and Olivia's uncle Sir Toby Belch has had it with him. So he recruits another rejected suitor of Olivia, name of Andrew Aguecheek (yes, these are the real names) and another person or two to prank Malvolio, because what we really needed here was one more guy chasing after the fair Olivia. Their punking of him gradually gets increasingly cruel.

Things really get whipped into a froth when the supposedly dead Sebastian shows up, runs into Olivia (who thinks she's the Cesario guy who's been avoiding her), is overwhelmed by Olivia's charms and marries her the same day! This throws a massive wrench into the works before everyone speedily settles down with the right person. Whew!

The comedic subplot with Olivia's arrogant steward Malvolio being taken down a notch or twenty by the pranks of Sir Toby and Sir Andrew is pretty humorous, though, depending on whether you can muster up any sympathy for Malvolio at all, you may be squirming in your seat by the end.

Thanks to Anne for her hilarious review of this play and for reminding me of it!

(3.5/5)

This was enjoyable, if somewhat chaotic. It's like the literal manifestation of everything my shelf "love-webs" stands for, plus that one jester dude.

Honestly, though, I think that Viola and Oliva should have ended up together instead of Olivia ending up with Sebastian (who I'm 100% convinced she married only because he's just the male version of Viola), and Viola ending up with Orsino (which I don't approve of but Shakespeare didn't ask me before writing this, did he?). Also, I'm pretty sure there was some unrequited love thing going on between Antonio and Sebastian, don't try to convince me otherwise.

Anyhow, I had a fun time reading this, even if I was a bit confused.

#therapyformalvolio (he might have been annoying and a pompous arse but he didn't deserve what he got)

YouTube kanalımda Shakespeare'in hayatı, mutlaka okunması gereken kitapları ve kronolojik okuma sırası hakkında bilgi edinebilirsiniz: https://youtu.be/rGxh2RVjmNU

Edebiyatın Nazar Boncukları

Nazar boncuğu nesnesini hiç sevmem, çünkü nazarın boncukça bir karşılığı yok. Ama edebiyatta bazı nazar boncukları var ki, üstüne saatlerce sosyal mesafeli bir ortamda oturup tartışabiliriz.

Dostoyevski'nin Başkasının Karısı adlı kitabı, Marquez'in Albaya Mektup Yok kitabı, Zweig'ın Ay Işığı Sokağı kitabındaki öyküler, Puşkin'in her konuya el atıp yazmaya çabaladığı tragedyalar gibi eserler bence edebiyatın nazar boncuklarıdır. Mesela Dostoyevski, Başkasının Karısı'nı iyi ki yazmış ki, biz onun dev eserlerinin büyüklüğünü o düşük çıta sayesinde daya iyi anlayabiliyoruz, böyle düşünün.

Shakespeare'in On İkinci Gece kitabında da hiçbir espri yok. Yani okumasam hiçbir şey fark etmezdi bence. Çünkü Shakespeare'den daha önce okuduğum 20 küsür kitabından farklı olan bir yön yoktu. Hatta şu an bu incelemeyi yazdığım sırada bile kitabın içerisinde neler olup neler bittiğini unuttum. Kitap o kadar etkileyicilikten ve okuruna duygu geçirebilmekten uzaktı ki, bu kitabın Shakespeare kitapları arasında bir nazar boncuğu olduğuna karar verdim. Zaten Shakespeare'in daha çok trajedileri etkileyici oluyor, bu eser ise sonu iyi biten kitap kategorisinde olan komedya türünde.

Eğer bir gün Shakespeare okumayı düşünürseniz, bence On İkinci Gece kitabını okumamak size bir şey kaybettirmez. Bu pek tabii ki kendi düşüncem. Zira 40 küsür kitap yazmış bir adamın bütün kitaplarını okumaktansa size esas katkı sağlayacak, zamanınızı kaybettirmeyecek 10-15 kitabını okumak bence sizin için de daha iyi olur sanki. İşte bu noktada ben devreye giriyorum ve sizin zaman kaybetmenizi önleyerek bu kitabı okumasanız da olur diyorum. Çünkü bir olayı yok yani anladınız mı, ne Hamlet'in isyanları var, ne Hırçın Kız'daki erkeğin kadın üzerinde hakimiyet kurmasının dönemi ışık tutması var, ne Shakespeare'in tarihi oyunlarındaki gibi iktidarların sanki bir doğal seçilim süreciymişcesine birbirini yenip hakimiyet kurması var, ne Venedik Taciri'ndeki manyak Yahudi Tefeci Shylock var, ne Windsor'un Şen Kadınları'ndaki aşırı muzip karakter Falstaff var, ne Bir Yaz Gecesi Rüyası kitabındaki büyülü gerçekçi ögeler var, ne Julius Caesar kitabındaki gibi bir suikast var, ne Kuru Gürültü kitabının Cennet Mahallesi dizisini andırması var, ne Titus Andronicus kitabındaki aşırı gerçekçi vahşet sahneleri var ne de Romeo ve Juliet'in ailelerinin kavgalı oluşuyla birlikte bir aşk yaşamaya çalışması var.

Muhtemelen yukarıdaki şeyleri saydıktan sonra sevmememle en çok hatırlayacağım Shakespeare kitabı On İkinci Gece olacak. Kitabı 1 hafta önce okumama rağmen içinden neredeyse tek bir olay bile hatırlamıyorum. Dostoyevski'nin Başkasının Karısı kitabını hiç sevmediğim halde adamın yatağın altına saklanmasını falan hatırlıyorum ama On İkinci Gece kitabını Shakespeare için belirlediğim bir nazar boncuğu olduğunu söylemem gerek ve söyledim.

We went to see a Cambridge University production of this last night, set in a similar period to the production we saw of As You Like It we saw earlier this year.

Zak Ghazi-Torbatt was hilarious as the perpetually drunk aristocrat Sir Toby Belch (subtlety is not the long suit of this play), he worked well with his off-sider, Sir Aguecheek, ably played by Ryan Monk. Ben Walsh’s Malvolio was a object lesson in how to not overplay comic creepiness. Megan Gilbert looked like an old hand doing Maria: it’s the best of the female roles and she didn’t let it down.

The setting was not, in my opinion, important to the play, neither detracting nor adding, but fifties music and song – If music be the food of love, play on – worked a treat. However, the director decided, in that modern way that is being forced upon us, to do her part in denying gender. To this end two changes were made to the play. One is the role of Antonio, changed to Antonia and played by a girl being a girl. This was not only inexplicable in terms of the desire to mess around with gender – after all, Antonio is a boy in love with a boy – but makes the relationship with Sebastian ridiculous. There can be no explanation, of course, as to why Sebastian can’t accept the love of Antonia. Nor, in a play with a happily-ever-after ending is it sensical to have this one person inexplicably left bereft. Needless to say, if it is a male character in love with a heterosexual male, we at least understand why Antonio can’t be part of the happy ending. I do wish that we had not been denied the chance to watch that doomed love, instead of which we bemusedly watched a girl carting around a bloke’s suitcases for three months wondering who she was going to end up with.

Rest here:


https://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpre...

You know what? I think this play is the Shakespearean equivalent of Three’s Company, a laugh-track comedy with goofball characters and preposterous situations that trigger a chain of events you can see coming a mile away. We’re talking here about a play in which a woman masquerades as a man (pretty much for the hell of it), deceiving everyone into believing she’s a dude without testes—because how else do you, in the absence of injectable testosterone products, convince people you’re a dude other than to pretend you’ve been castrated as a young boy? She manages even to convince a wealthy countess of her “maleness,” inadvertently eliciting the countess’s romantic interests, this of course culminating in a wacky situation indeed because the girl herself is in love with the duke she is working for—the very duke who sent her to the countess in the first place to procure the countess’s love for him! OMFG!

But this is a play in five acts, guys, so the Jack Tripper shenanigans don’t end there. The testicle-free girl has a brother—that’s all, just a brother (there are no identical twins anywhere in this play)—and that alone is enough to exacerbate confusion to the extreme. Because by the dual condition that A) she has a brother; and B) she is pretending to be a dude; it must therefore follow that C) she looks exactly like him. And when I say “exactly,” I mean precisely. The two are virtually indistinguishable from one another—even without having had Adam’s apple reduction surgery. Amazing, right? So now we have a girl being mistaken for her brother, her brother being mistaken for her, and this occurring even among people who know the brother intimately. One had spent every day of the last three months with this guy and still thought his sister were he! Can’t you just imagine this whole thing playing out at the Regal Beagle or something? Mr. Furley’s wide eyes darting back and forth in surprise, Chrissy scratching her head in disbelief, Jack hiding under the table, Janet watering her plants.

But all ribbing aside, I actually liked this play. Not as much as Shakespeare’s tragedies, of course—I honestly do believe this particular play is heavier on entertainment value than it is on literary value, but I’m the kind of guy who enjoys a good Three’s Company rerun. Irrespective of situational believability or plot predictability, when it is executed well enough, I am wholly entertained.

Besides "Much ado about nothing", Twelfth Night is my favourite Shakespeare play.


The major character is Viola, who after losing her twin brother, is forced to disguise herself as a boy to survive in a strange and hostile land (namely Illyria which is at war with her home county, Messaline). She musters all her courage to hide her pain over the supposed death of her brother. But struggles are not over as she also has to hide her passionate love from Orsino, the Duke of Illyira whom she serves.

Her position is twofold difficult: she soon becomes Orsino's confident, but to ease his sufferings, she undertakes to act as a "courier" for pursuing his hopeless love, the Countess Olivia.

Then comes another Shakespearean turn of the screw: Olivia, who won't hear of Orsino's passion, falls for Cesario/Viola. In the meantime, Sebastian, thinking her beloved sister, Viola is dead, sets for Illyria as well ...

As in comedies, all things messed up will sort themselves out in the end, however, this is not the light kind, the shadow of the tragic is hovering over the whole drama shaped in one of the subplots. The play seems to balance on the very narrow edge of tragedy and comedy all the time despite the many hilarious moments.

Viola is without doubt one of the strongest and feistiest heroines you come to admire: an upright woman, who, despite the disguise she is forced to wear, is the most honest of all, especially compared to the characters of Orsino and Olivia, both of whom are deluding themselves by imaginary feelings.

Via the twin + gender swap plots Shakespeare presents some more nuanced feelings of/for Olivia and Orsino. Self-indulgent and blind as they are, of course they remain blissfully unaware of the homoerotic attachment they have towards Viola: Olivia likes a girl who is dressed up as a boy, while throughout the play we can witness that Orsino is very much drawn to her thinking he is a boy (well, more fun for them and this gives their HEA some spice).

Read this as part of my Open University studies and I really enjoyed it.