A Night of Shakespeare Slash

[mysid]

It had been ages since I saw a play, and longer yet since I'd seen one by Shakespeare, so when I read a glowing review of Twelfth Night at the McCarter Theater in Princeton, I told Hubby that I'd really like to go, and last night was the night.

A brief summary for those of you who don't know/remember the plot: Viola is shipwrecked on the coast of Illyria. She believes that her twin brother, Sebastian, drowned. Finding a trunk of his clothes, and knowing she'll be safer disguised as a boy, she puts on his clothes, calls herself Cesario, and gets a job in the household of the Duke.

The Duke wishes to marry a neighboring Countess, Olivia, but she won't give him the time of day. The Duke sends Cesario/Viola to woo Olivia on his behalf. Viola does her best--despite the fact that she herself has fallen in love with the Duke. The plan backfires; Olivia falls in love with Cesario. Oops.

Meanwhile, Sebastian has also arrived in Illyria--accompanied by the man who saved him, Antonio. Sebastian and Cesario/Viola look enough alike that people begin mistaking them for one another. By the end of the play, Olivia has married Sebastian, believing him to be Cesario. And when the truth is revealed about Viola, the Duke marries her. (There's also a subplot involving members of Olivia's household, but we'll skip it here.)

This production of the play certainly had fun playing with the slashy elements of the play. Viola is, of course, disguised as a boy when she falls in love with the Duke. Reading the play, there's no overt hint that the Duke returns her/his feelings--but he is awfully quick to propose to her the moment he learns that he can. Awfully quick, yes? So--- in this production, in one scene when C/V speaks a bit too freely about her "admiration" for the Duke, she comes this close to kissing the Duke, AND he seems to be just as tempted to kiss him/her. The audience found it quite amusing watching the complete confusion on his face as pulls away and adjusts his clothing. LOL!

The director also allows Olivia to capture C/V is a liplock, but C/V isn't quite as receptive. She knows which way she swings.

Another slashy insert to the play was an interesting little tango. Once the characters begin falling in love, the director twice had Olivia's female servants and the Duke's male servants tango across the stage between scenes. The first time, they come out in m/f pairs; the second time, they came out m/m and f/f.

Something that Shakespeare did write into the play is Antonio proclaiming his love for Sebastian--often. It is for love of Sebastian that Antonio accompanies the youth on his travels in Illyria. He is risking his life doing so; he's a wanted man in Illyria. I must admit, I'd read the play in the past, and I read "love" as friendship, platonic love. But in this production, after watching one hunky man tangoing with another, it would have been difficult to interpret Antonio's "love" as something so sexless, nor was it played that way. Antonio keeps telling Sebastian that he loves him, and Sebastian, naive straight boy that he is, just doesn't get it. When Antonio hears that Sebastian married Olivia, he is visibly heartbroken.

Before I went to play, my daughter asked me to tell her the story. I'd given her a quick summary and concluded, "So Viola gets to marry the Duke, and Sebastian gets to marry Olivia. It's happy ending for everyone." Little did I realize that poor Antonio would be the odd man out.
.

Comments

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

It sounds like the Duke would have been happier with Sebastian. Or Antonio.

[mysid.livejournal.com]

That's a thought.

But they played it more like James Garner's attraction to "Victor" in Victor/Victoria. He'd never been attracted to a man before and can't quite figure out why he's attracted to this one particular man. Then--TA DA!--he's a she! That explains it!

He becomes quite enthusiastic about kissing her after learning she is a woman--although she is still in male drag when he pins her to the ground kissing her. (But he strips off her male disguise quickly enough--quite literally. She is topless by the end of play (facing the Duke but with her back to the audience).

[jadis31.livejournal.com]

That icon is the best thing I've ever seen.

[mysid.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Feel free to steal.

[jadis31.livejournal.com]

The sexual ambiguity in that play is almost overwhelming. I've seen productions where the director tries to play it down and all that does is water down the play. You lose some of the awkward humor and the bit of heart break. I'm glad to here this production went the other way. It sounds great.

I might have to go find the Trevor Nunn movie and watch that while I'm doing homework tomorrow.

[mysid.livejournal.com]

I'd never seen it performed before--read it, yes, but seen it, no--and that's not nearly the same.