莎士比亚: 第十二夜/SHAKESPEARE: Twelfth Night

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  SHAKESPEARE: Twelfth Night
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莎士比亚: 第十二夜 / SHAKESPEARE: Twelfth Night
[ 读物介绍 ]
William ShakespeareTwelfth Night or What You Will Twelfth Night, nowadays one of Shakespeare’s best-loved andmost-admired comedies, was not always so regarded: Samuel Pepys saw the playthree times in the 1660s and judged it ‘silly’. Modern audiences, critics anddirectors seem better attuned to its delicate counter pointing of romance andrealism, to its ambivalent ending and to the poetic suggestiveness of Feste’ssongs.The Date and Sources Leslie Hotson’s attractive theory thatthe play was specifically composed for the visit to court of Don VirginioOrsino on January 6, 1601, has now been rebutted: Elizabeth Story Donno (NewCambridge Shakespeare) suggests that Shakespeare wrote his comedy ‘sometimeafter the visit of the duke in January 1601, and that the mood Shakespeareestablished in the play prompted him to recall both the name of the visitor andthe time of his visit’. Twelfth Night is nevertheless undoubtedlyfestive—almost anarchic at times—in spirit, and thus suits its title’ssuggestion of the celebrations marking the last night of the Christmas season.The alternative title —‘What You Will’—also implies a mood of carelessmischief, even misrule. The season Shakespeare actually intends for the settingof his play is in fact early summer—‘more matter for a May morning’—which isappropriate for the prevailing atmosphere of youthful excitement and passion.Shakespeare’s immediate source for Twelfth Night wasprobably ‘Apolonius and Silla’ in Barnaby Riche’s Farewell to MilitaryProfession, first published in 1581 and itself based on the Italian playGl’Inganni (1562). Here the themes of disguise, deception and cross-wooing allappear. Shakespeare softens some of the more outrageous or shocking elements,but is perhaps at one with Riche’s claim that his tale is ‘forged onely fordelight, neither credible to be believed, nor hurtful to be perused’. Synopsis of the Play Act 1, Scene 1: Orsino, Duke of Illyria, is sick withunrequited love for the beautiful Olivia who is in mourning for her father andbrother and has vowed to veil her face, nun-like, for seven years. Scene 2:Viola, shipwrecked in a hostile country and fearing that she has lost heridentical twin brother Sebastian in the storm, is helped by the kindly Captainand decides to enter the Duke’s service disguised as a page. Scene 3: Sir TobyBelch, disreputable uncle of Olivia and staying in her house with his foolishfriend Sir Andrew Aguecheek, is warned by the serving-gentlewoman Maria tomoderate his behavior. Sir Andrew, it seems, intends to court Olivia. Scene 4:Viola, calling herself Cesario and already a favorite with the Duke, is askedto woo the unyielding Olivia on his behalf. Scene 5: Feste, the Clown (orFool), has reappeared in Olivia’s household in spite of the disapproval ofMalvolio, Olivia’s pompous steward. Viola (Cesario) talks her way into thepresence of Olivia, who almost immediately falls hopelessly in love with theattractive page. Act 2, Scene 1: Sebastian, followed by the faithful Antonio,mourns the loss of his sister and resolves to go to Orsino’s court. Scene 2:Malvolio delivers a ring to Viola, supposedly dropped by her. Scene 3: in avain attempt to restrain their behavior, Malvolio interrupts Sir Toby, SirAndrew and Feste, noisily drinking and singing late at night. Affronted, theyseize on a plan of Maria’s to humiliate Malvolio by convincing him through aforged letter that Olivia is in love with him. Scene 4: Viola and Orsinoexchange intimate reflections on love; Viola must painfully suppress her owngrowing infatuation with the duke. Scene 5: Malvolio, walking in the garden,discovers the forged letter, is convinced by it, and decides to follow itsinstructions: he will ‘be strange, stout, in yellow stockings, andcross-gartered…’ he ‘will smile’. Act 3, Scene 1: Viola, paying her second visit on the Duke’sbehalf, is forced to reject an outright declaration of love by Olivia. Scene 2:Sir Andrew, jealous of Viola’s effect on Olivia, is incited by Sir Toby tochallenge the page to a duel. Scene 3: Antonio has followed Sebastian to thetown in spite of the danger to himself: the Illyrians want him for grievousdamage inflicted on them in a sea-fight. Scene 4: Malvolio appears before hislady, grotesquely obeying the injunctions in the letter. Olivia judges him mad,and his enemies take advantage of this to have him effectively imprisoned.Mischievously provoked by Sir Toby, the two equally reluctant and incompetentduelists (Aguecheek and Viola) are forced to draw their swords but areprevented from fighting by the sudden appearance of Antonio, who imagines thathe is saving Sebastian’s life. A baffled Viola prompts his bitter resentment bysaying (truly) that she does not know him as he is arrested and carried off byIllyrian officers. Act 4, Scene 1: An enraged Sir Andrew who, strikingSebastian in error for Viola/Cesario, is soundly beaten, interrupts Sebastianand Feste. Further brawling is prevented by the arrival of Olivia who, seeingSebastian and likewise mistaking him for Cesario, leaves with him. Scene 2:Feste, disguised as a priest, torments Malvolio in prison but finally agrees toprovide him with pen and paper so that he may write to Olivia. Scene 3:Sebastian is readily persuaded by Olivia (who mistakes him for Cesario) toenter with her into a ceremony of betrothal. Act 5, Scene 1: All are now present at Olivia’s house andthe disguises begin to unravel: Antonio, pointing out Viola as the ‘mostungrateful boy’ he has been accompanying for the last three months, prompts thediscovery of true identity, but not before both the Duke and the CountessOlivia have been briefly enraged by the apparent perfidy of their followers.Orsino then belatedly realizes what has been hinted to the audiencebefore—namely, that he in fact loves Viola/Cesario rather than Olivia. Allappears to end happily, if we discount the rejected Sir Andrew—even Sir Tobyand Maria are now married—but the celebrations are marred by the furiousdeparture of Malvolio who, now released, cannot forgive his tormentors and vows‘to be revenged on the whole pack of [them]’. Commentary The play revolves—humorously, affectionately, and at timespainfully —around the follies of youth as it pursues love and happiness in aworld, which is half-fantasy, half-real. Disguise and deception mayparadoxically lead to truth, as in the infatuated Orsino’s eventual discoverythat he really loves Viola/Cesario, not Olivia, but they are equally capable ofproducing pain and humiliation: Malvolio, ‘sick of self-love’, is tricked byhis own vanity into believing that his lady is besotted with him, and mustsuffer for this foolish presumption. Sir Andrew Aguecheek, the butt ofeveryone’s humor, was ‘adored once’; and what are we to make of the enigmatic,melancholic Feste? Some directors like to develop the faint hints that henurses a hopeless passion for Olivia (who certainly seems dependent on him),and his songs lend a distinctively plangent note to the play, with their stresson transience and death—‘youth’s a stuff will not endure’ … ‘for the rain itraineth every day’. His often sardonic, reductive commentary on the behavior ofthose around him is, however, challenged by Viola, who seems to promise amaturity and constancy not found in others—her poignant evocation of one who‘never told her love’ and ‘sat like Patience on a monument / Smiling at grief’counters the flightiness and self-indulgence around her. Yet we should bewareof making something too serious and solemn out of this most captivatingplay—for all its darker hints and sharp mockery of folly, the prevailingimpression is surely positive: the puritanical world of Malvolio, where there‘shall be no more cakes and ale’, is rejected, as is the distorted world of theinfatuated lover Orsino who, at the start of the play, has not yet learned tounderstand his own heart, and would prefer to cultivate his emotionalsuffering—‘give me excess of it’. Notes by Perry Keenlyside Twelfth Night as a Microcosm of Elizabethan England Although the play takes place in the fantastical world ofIllyria, it seems to be rooted in late Elizabethan England; and it is not toofar fetched to believe Shakespeare is examining and satirically portraying thestate of the nation c.1600. We are shown in Olivia a critical portrait ofElizabeth I, a single lady, mistress of her house, though not of her emotions,rejecting all suitors. Orsino’s obsessive ardor for Olivia puts in mind theheadstrong Earl of Essex, whose unsuccessful and fatal rebellion, an attempt toupset the balance of the realm, in 1601, was a recent memory. Shakespeare seemsto be implying that power without responsibility leads toanarchy: the kind of misrule exemplified by Sir Toby and his followers, wholive only for pleasure. By this time Elizabeth I was in her 60s, and anelaborate fantasy was being played out at court where poets glorified her as Glorianathe Virgin Queen, whilst she hid the ravages of time behind inches of make-up.A Court so out of touch with reality leaves the way open for a new class totake up the reins of authority. Malvolio represents the worst aspects of theemerging middle-class, materialistic, ambitious, philistine, a figure of fun inthe early 1600s, but Shakespeare in creating this ‘kind of a Puritan’ who willbe ‘revenged on the whole pack of [them]’ seems to have a foreboding of theCivil War of the 1640s when the old order and the new fought it out forEngland’s future. David Timson The Cast of Twelfth Night Orsino JonathanKeebleValentine NickFletcherCurio/Second Officer DanielPhilpottOlivia LucyWhybrowSir Toby Belch GerardMurphyMalvolio ChristopherGodwinFeste DavidTimsonMaria JaneWhittenshawFabian BrianParrViola StellaGonetSebastian BenjaminSoamesSir Andrew Aguecheek MalcolmSinclairAntonio AdamKotzServant/Captain/Priest PeterYappDirector DavidTimsonProducer NicolasSoamesEngineer SimonWeirStage Management AlisonMackenzieScribe Beth HammondRecorded at Motivation Sound Studios, London JONATHAN KEEBLE’s (Orsino) theater appearances includeleading roles at Manchester’s Royal Exchange, Coventry, Liverpool, Exeter,Lancaster and West Yorkshire Playhouse. Television includes People Like Us, TheTwo Of Us and Deptford Grafitti. Jonathan has featured in over 250 radio playsfor the BBC and was a member of the Radio Drama Company. NICK FLETCHER (Valentine) began his career in Henry V and AChaste Maid in Cheapside at Shakespeare’s Globe. Other theater work includes ADifficult Age for English Touring Theatre, seven plays at the Orange Tree inthe’98/’99 company and Silence at the Birmingham Rep. Also, After the War forGranada TV. DANIEL PHILPOTT (Curio/Second Officer) trained at LAMDA and,after success in the prestigious Carleton Hobbs Award for Radio Drama, has beenprolific in BBC Radio and the Spoken Word industry. His theater work includesnumerous productions on the London fringe. LUCY WHYBROW (Olivia) credits include Tom Stoppard’s Arcadiaand Juliet in Romeo and Juliet for the Royal Shakespeare Company. She won theIan Charleson Award in 1996 for her role in Katie Mitchell’s Easter. ForCarnival Films she played Lucy Deane in The Mill on The Floss. For radio shehas recorded Dombey and Son and Alice in Wonderland. GERARD MURPHY (Sir Toby Belch) is an associate artist of theRoyal Shakespeare Company where he has worked extensively as an actor anddirector. He has performed in many theaters throughout Great Britain, in theWest End, on television, in films and on the radio. CHRISTOPHER GODWIN (Malvolio) worked extensively for AlanAyckbourn in the 70s. At the Royal Shakespeare Company he played in TheRelapse, The Devil is an Ass and Woyzeck. Plays in the West End include HayFever, Noises Off, School for Scandal, What A Performance and two seasons atthe Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park (including the role of Malvolio). DAVID TIMSON (Feste) has performed in modern and classicplays across the UK and abroad, including Wild Honey for Alan Ayckbourn,Hamlet, The Man of Mode, and The Seagull. He has been seen on television inNelson’s Column and Swallows and Amazons, and in the film The Russia House. JANE WHITTENSHAW (Maria) trained at Guildhall. She hasworked for the Royal Shakespeare Company touring the USA in The Life AndAdventures of Nicholas Nickleby and has also worked extensively in radio dramafor the BBC. Her television credits include Eastenders, Silent Witness, PeakPractice and Kiss Me Kate. BRIAN PARR (Fabian) trained at RADA and has since playedmany parts including seasons with the Royal Shakespeare Company as mostlykillers and clowns, Costard in Love’s Labour’s Lost, and Launcelot Gobbo in TheMerchant of Venice. He has also worked for the BBC Radio Drama Company. TVcredits include Eskimo Day, Midsomer Murders, and Summer in the Suburbs. Inaddition, he writes and directs pantomimes. STELLA GONET’s (Viola) series of key roles have placed herin the forefront of young British actresses. These included Titania andIsabella for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Roxanne in Cyrano de Bergerac andOphelia in Hamlet at the National Theatre. BENJAMIN SOAMES (Sebastian) trained at LAMDA. He hasappeared in the television series Sharpe and Absolutely Fabulous as well as thefilms Heavy Weather and England, My England. He toured worldwide in theacclaimed Cheek By Jowl production of Measure For Measure. MALCOLM SINCLAIR (Sir Andrew Aguecheek) has workedextensively for the National (Racing Demon, Richard III). His most recentLondon appearances include Hay Fever (Savoy), Uncle Vanya (Young Vic/RoyalShakespeare Company), Heartbreak House (Almeida), and the title role in ByJeeves (Duke of York). On television he was in four series of Pie In The Sky.He has narrated Schoenberg’s A Survivor In Warsaw for the Boston Symphony andthe LPO, and Bliss’s Morning Heroes for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. ADAM KOTZ (Antonio) has worked extensively in leading roleswith, in particular, The Royal National Theatre and Cheek by Jowl TheatreCompany. Plays include Racing Demon, Measure for Measure, and A Family Affair.Television and film work includes Band of Gold, Touching Evil and Shot Through The Heart. PETER YAPP (Servant/Captain/Priest) has appeared in playsand theaters across Britain and in the West End including Rosencrantz andGuildenstern are Dead at the Piccadilly, and The Black Prince at the Aldwych,and spent a year with the BBC Radio Drama Company. His television creditsinclude House of Elliot, Martin Chuzzlewit and Poirot.