The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 9.0148  Wednesday, 18 February 1998.

[1]     From:   John Owen <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Monday, 16 Feb 1998 11:38:12 EST
        Subj:   Re: SHK 9.0146  Re: Twelfth Night Recording

[2]     From:   Ron Shields <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Monday, 16 Feb 1998 11:13:07 -0400
        Subj:   Re: SHK 9.0146  Re: Twelfth Night Recording

[3]     From:   Marilyn A. Bonomi <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
        Date:   Monday, 16 Feb 1998 13:41:11 -0500
        Subj:   Re  SHK 9.0146 Twelfth Night


[1]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           John Owen <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Monday, 16 Feb 1998 11:38:12 EST
Subject: 9.0146  Re: Twelfth Night Recording
Comment:        Re: SHK 9.0146  Re: Twelfth Night Recording

"It would be entirely possible  to read this as a play containing a
decadent upper class, completely indifferent to the viscous, revenge
motivated, subplot."

Very interesting. Does anyone know if this has been tried, and with what
success?

J.O.

[2]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Ron Shields <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Monday, 16 Feb 1998 11:13:07 -0400
Subject: 9.0146  Re: Twelfth Night Recording
Comment:        Re: SHK 9.0146  Re: Twelfth Night Recording

>>On Feb 8, john Owen wrote:

>>Yes, the Marlowe Society's version [of Twelfth Night] is first rate
>>although I wonder how sombre Mr. Whitehead thinks TN ought to be.

>Please don't get me wrong, Twelfth Night is my favourite Shakespearean
>play, and I believe that the Marlowe Society's version is wonderful.
>However, recently I have begun to consider what a darker, more sinister
>version of Twelfth Night might be like.  It would be entirely possible
>to read this as a play containing a decadent upper class, completely
>indifferent to the viscous, revenge motivated, subplot.  Like MSD this
>play has a darker side which is often ignored in performances.

>Drew Whitehead

I know what it is like.  I've worked on four productions of this play
(12th night) over the past 12 years and have come to conclude that it is
a much, much darker play than is traditionally staged.  It is a decadent
upper class (Sir Andrew is the ultimate example of this-laughing pathos,
really).  They (the upper-class) are not "indifferent"---merely
preoccupied.

Ron Shields
Professor and Chair
Theatre
BGSU

[3]-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:           Marilyn A. Bonomi <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date:           Monday, 16 Feb 1998 13:41:11 -0500
Subject: 9.0146 Twelfth Night
Comment:        Re  SHK 9.0146 Twelfth Night

Drew Whitehead comments,

"It would be entirely possible to read this as a play containing a
decadent upper class, completely indifferent to the viscous, revenge
motivated, subplot.  Like MSD this play has a darker side which is often
ignored in performances."

The Yale Rep production of several years ago absolutely took this
approach, which apparently tied in to setting the whole thing among the
dissolute jet-setters of the 1960's.

How well it might have worked in some other approach to decadence I
don't know, but I found this production, while predominantly well-ACTED,
a truly distasteful experience.

Just one POV...

Marilyn B.

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