letter scene, which normally happens in the garden, happened in his bedroom, and the box-tree was actually a screen with a print of a box-tree on it. That unlocked a lot of different things in the role. One felt one had been shown inside Malvolio’s inner sanctum, and that made him seem very vulnerable. So his punishment consequently felt all the more harsh. And in part because of that, I think, the line “I’ll be revenged …” was met with silence. Dead silence. It wasn’t funny, it was awkward. Like someone letting off an air-raid siren in the middle of a violin concerto.
7. Simon Russell Beale as Malvolio in Sam Mendes’ 2002 production at the Donmar Warehouse in London—the letter scene set in a bedroom (“the box-tree was actually a screen with a print of a box-tree on it. That unlocked a lot of different things in the role”).
8. The humiliation of Malvolio goes “way too far. So does the humiliation of Olivia when she realizes she’s married the wrong teenager”: Jason Merrells as Orsino, Chris New as Viola, and Justine Mitchell as Olivia in Neil Bartlett’s 2007 production in the Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon.
Donnellan: We had a very special way of treating the exit of Malvolio. But you need to see the Russians do it! Anyway, how far is “too far”? There are many darknesses in the play that are unsuitable to lightweight comedy, but I don’t know who could argue that
Twelfth Night
was merely a lightweight comedy.
The final grimness of
Twelfth Night
Shakespeare never lived to see. Thirty years later Malvolio came back, disguised as Oliver Cromwell, and was indeed revenged upon the whole pack of them. The puritans closed down the theaters and destroyed forever the particular form of performance that created the greatest plays ever written. But be careful, he still returns from time to time …
Bartlett: Yes it goes too far, way too far. So does the humiliation of Olivia in front of everybody when it turns out she’s married thewrong teenager. So does the humiliation of Orsino when Olivia publicly spurns his final offer of marriage. So does the humiliation of Antonio when “Sebastian” denies him in public. And so on. I never want to tell an audience if a moment is tragic or comic. Some people find Malvolio’s exit full of dignity and pathos. Some people think he’s a deluded, jumped-up, dirty-minded old idiot who’s got his comeuppance, and laugh in his face. That’s called live theater.
* Ancient personality test based on nine psycho-spiritual types.
SHAKESPEARE’S CAREER
IN THE THEATER
BEGINNINGS
William Shakespeare was an extraordinarily intelligent man who was born and died in an ordinary market town in the English Midlands. He lived an uneventful life in an eventful age. Born in April 1564, he was the eldest son of John Shakespeare, a glove-maker who was prominent on the town council until he fell into financial difficulties. Young William was educated at the local grammar in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, where he gained a thorough grounding in the Latin language, the art of rhetoric, and classical poetry. He married Ann Hathaway and had three children (Susanna, then the twins Hamnet and Judith) before his twenty-first birthday: an exceptionally young age for the period. We do not know how he supported his family in the mid-1580s.
Like many clever country boys, he moved to the city in order to make his way in the world. Like many creative people, he found a career in the entertainment business. Public playhouses and professional full-time acting companies reliant on the market for their income were born in Shakespeare’s childhood. When he arrived in London as a man, sometime in the late 1580s, a new phenomenon was in the making: the actor who is so successful that he becomes a “star.” The word did not exist in its modern sense, but the pattern is recognizable: audiences went to the theater not so much to see a particular show as to witness the comedian
7. Simon Russell Beale as Malvolio in Sam Mendes’ 2002 production at the Donmar Warehouse in London—the letter scene set in a bedroom (“the box-tree was actually a screen with a print of a box-tree on it. That unlocked a lot of different things in the role”).
8. The humiliation of Malvolio goes “way too far. So does the humiliation of Olivia when she realizes she’s married the wrong teenager”: Jason Merrells as Orsino, Chris New as Viola, and Justine Mitchell as Olivia in Neil Bartlett’s 2007 production in the Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon.
Donnellan: We had a very special way of treating the exit of Malvolio. But you need to see the Russians do it! Anyway, how far is “too far”? There are many darknesses in the play that are unsuitable to lightweight comedy, but I don’t know who could argue that
Twelfth Night
was merely a lightweight comedy.
The final grimness of
Twelfth Night
Shakespeare never lived to see. Thirty years later Malvolio came back, disguised as Oliver Cromwell, and was indeed revenged upon the whole pack of them. The puritans closed down the theaters and destroyed forever the particular form of performance that created the greatest plays ever written. But be careful, he still returns from time to time …
Bartlett: Yes it goes too far, way too far. So does the humiliation of Olivia in front of everybody when it turns out she’s married thewrong teenager. So does the humiliation of Orsino when Olivia publicly spurns his final offer of marriage. So does the humiliation of Antonio when “Sebastian” denies him in public. And so on. I never want to tell an audience if a moment is tragic or comic. Some people find Malvolio’s exit full of dignity and pathos. Some people think he’s a deluded, jumped-up, dirty-minded old idiot who’s got his comeuppance, and laugh in his face. That’s called live theater.
* Ancient personality test based on nine psycho-spiritual types.
SHAKESPEARE’S CAREER
IN THE THEATER
BEGINNINGS
William Shakespeare was an extraordinarily intelligent man who was born and died in an ordinary market town in the English Midlands. He lived an uneventful life in an eventful age. Born in April 1564, he was the eldest son of John Shakespeare, a glove-maker who was prominent on the town council until he fell into financial difficulties. Young William was educated at the local grammar in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, where he gained a thorough grounding in the Latin language, the art of rhetoric, and classical poetry. He married Ann Hathaway and had three children (Susanna, then the twins Hamnet and Judith) before his twenty-first birthday: an exceptionally young age for the period. We do not know how he supported his family in the mid-1580s.
Like many clever country boys, he moved to the city in order to make his way in the world. Like many creative people, he found a career in the entertainment business. Public playhouses and professional full-time acting companies reliant on the market for their income were born in Shakespeare’s childhood. When he arrived in London as a man, sometime in the late 1580s, a new phenomenon was in the making: the actor who is so successful that he becomes a “star.” The word did not exist in its modern sense, but the pattern is recognizable: audiences went to the theater not so much to see a particular show as to witness the comedian
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