Page 106 - Shakespeare in the Movie From the Silent Era to Shakespeare in Love

Sophisticated Comedy I 95

Speak For Yourself, Cesario
Twelfth Night
Renaissance Films, 1996; Trevor Nunn

Shakespeare ended his middle period with Twelfth Night, an effort-
less blending of the preceding plays's most appealing qualities. From
Much Ado About Nothing, he salvaged the domestic household as it
would have functioned during the late Renaissance. He also added
"serious comedy," via the unrequited love Orsino, Duke of mythical
Illyria, harbors for Olivia, who has sworn not to marry following her
beloved brother's death. From As You Like It, Will revived his
crowd-pleasing concept of a young woman disguising herself as a
man; Viola, separated from her twin brother, Sebastian, during a sea
storm, assumes masculine attire to protect herself. As Cesario, she
befriends Duke Orsino, who sends her to woo Olivia for him. Olivia
promptly falls in love with this handsome "boy," who is herself
intoxicated with Orsino.
Half social comedy and half Green World divertissement, Twelfth
Night was written late in 1599 for a special manor performance. The
play is derived from diverse preexisting materials, such as Gi
'Inganni, a popular Italian farce from a half century earlier, where
the device of male and female identical twins, constantly mistaken
for one another, was used. Other characters were drawn from
anthologies, chronicles, and other authors' English plays, here com-
bined in an entirely original manner.
Owing to the sophisticated tone, Twelfth Night makes few
accommodations for a groundling audience, so rude mechanicals
were notably absent. Yet a comedy must provide laughs, so there is
Feste, a Touchstone-like clown. Each plot allowed the Bard to exam-
ine some recurring interest. Continual confusion of brother with
sister replays the appearance-reality motif in a lighter mood. The
manner in which the mischievous Toby Belch makes everyone
believe supercilious Malvolio is insane raises Shakespeare's inquiry
into the nature of madness. Characters "bewitched" by the beauty of
others implies the fickleness of romantic love, compared to the last-
ing emotion of friendship. Viola and Olivia represent variations on
the liberated, yet chaste, ideal woman. Ambition appears when
Malvolio attempts to rise above his station, while life as theater runs
through every plot, tying all elements into an organized whole.