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Monday, February 28, 2011

Twelfth Night



"When that I was and a little tiny boy,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
A foolish thing was but a toy,
For the rain it raineth every day."
- Act 5, Scene 1

While I enjoy most of Shakespeare's plays my favorite is definitely Twelfth Night. I really enjoy the story of mistaken identities, humor, mischief and true love. It ends very well and doesn't have any true villains in it. My favorite characters are Viola, Malvolio (cross gartered!) and Feste the fool (too funny!). A few years ago my family and I enjoyed three different viewings of Twelfth Night between March and July.


"Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em."
- Act 2, Scene 5

Twelfth Night - Shakespearian Home-schoolers
In our area there is group of Christian home-schoolers that perform a Shakespeare play each year. My family and I really enjoyed their work and clever staging. They all did a fantastic job acting and even the younger kids only messed up a few times on their lines. I only wish I'd know about this group when I was still in school. I love to see home-schoolers of all ages having fun and working together like this!



"If this were played upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
- Act 3, Scene 4
Twelfth Night - Theater At Monmouth
Soon after seeing the home-schoolers do this great play my family took me to see Twelfth Night preformed by a local acting troupe for my birthday! The Theater At Monmouth performs a wide variety of wonderful plays and musicals each year at historic Cumston Hall in Monmouth, Maine. After seeing them perform A Winter's Tale my family and I were so excited to see them perform again. They set this play as if Feste were the director of a black & white looking over a film reel. It was an interesting concept but I'm not sure it worked very well. But the acting was fabulous! There were some familiar faces from the first play we'd see, the costumes and settings were lovely and they added music selections that fit in very well. My family and I sat towards the front right of the theater and we had a great view. I just love watching live plays and especially Shakespeare. I only wish I had the money to go see all of their performances every season at Cumston Hall. They are so good!



"If music be the food of love, play on!"
- Act 1, Scene 1
Twelfth Night (1996)
For a long time my family's favorite Shakespeare film was Much Ado About Nothing, but after seeing Twelfth Night (1996) for the first time I just fell in love! There are so many great period drama actors, beautiful scenery, amazing music and lovely Victorian style costumes. This film is also a bit cleaner that Much Ado in that it doesn't have any nudity and few questionable scenes. I greatly enjoyed Ben Kingsley who was funny and musical in the role of Feste the fool. And Nigel Hawthorne was amazing as Malvolio, seeing him cross gartered in yellow stockings is one of my favorite scenes! Also be on the look out for great period drama actors: Imelda Staunton, Imogen Stubbs, Helena Bonham Carter, Nicholas Farrell, Steve Mackintosh and Toby Stephens among others. I highly recommend this adaptation, it's so much fun!





Very Truly Your's,
at

5 comments:

  1. ElizabethMarch 1, 2011 at 5:53 PM

    I love the quote "If Music be the food of love, play on!" I think that is my favorite quote from this play.

    ~Elizabeth

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  2. Hannah Prewett (beastsbelle)March 1, 2011 at 7:25 PM

    We watched the 1996 film version of Twelfth Night for our drama class one year. It was the year that one of the other guys and I were playing a brother and sister, and our drama teacher wanted us to try to portray the same kind of loving yet humorous relationship.

    I enjoyed this version for the most part, but the main thing I remember is that horrid garden scene during Malvolio's monologue, with the statue! It was so embarrassing to watch that in mixed company! Our drama teacher was mortified and dove for the remote right away. Your readers might want a "heads up" to either fast forward or close their eyes for that scene. :{

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  3. JujubeMarch 2, 2011 at 7:37 AM

    Twelfth Night is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays. It's highly amusing.

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  4. BethanyMarch 2, 2011 at 2:02 PM

    Enjoyed this post.

    "Twelfth Night" is amazing. We got to see a professional performance of it last summer and of course I'm familiar with the movie. It kind of creeped my family out, but I loved it.

    There is fascinating analysis of it in the book, "Deep Comedy".

    Thanks for the post!

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  5. JaneGSMarch 2, 2011 at 10:45 PM

    Twelfth Night is one of my favorites as well--I watched all the adaptations back when I was reading all the plays in order, and really liked the Imogen Stubbs one best.

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