I want to go here...

So I know it's not quite where we decided Illyria is but maybe this place in Croatia explains some of the magical mystery that inspired Shakespeare.

http://www.hellomagazine.com/travel/201104155270/plitvice/national-park/croatia/1/

Good Link!

Hi guys,

As promised here is a link to spark notes that describes the themes, motifs and symbols in Twelfth Night.
http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/twelfthnight/themes.html
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Peerage in England

Hey Guys,


Whilst doing a bit of background research for Aguecheek, I thought this information on the peerage system in England might help those who have characters of nobility. The pecking order was as follows:

King & Queen

Prince & Princess

Duke & Duchess

Marquess & Marchioness

Earl/Count & Countess

Viscount & Viscountess

Baron & Baroness

Knight & Dame

Obviously Illyria is a country of it's own, but going on the following quote from Olivia, I think it would be fair to assume that it follows a similar code:

She'll none o' the count: she'll not match aboveher degree, neither in estate, years, nor wit; Ihave heard her swear't. Tut, there's life in't,man. (1.3.21)

If Olivia is a Countess then she wouldn't marry a Duke.


This makes me wonder who King of Illyria is...

Another one to watch...

Hey Everyone,

Going along the Transgender/Gender issues theme I started watching another program on BBC iPlayer on people who are born with ambigious genitals: Me My Sex, and I. It's looking at Gender Identity in a scientific way, but it's got some really good anecdotes and refence with real people who are affected by the situation.

Click here to go directly to the program on iPlayer

Perhaps it is a more tenuous link to our plot- but still I thought it might be worth watching!

Cal

Gay Transgender Couple

Here's a link to the programme Emma mentioned today in class. It was quite an interesting watch, wish I could see them right through to 'full' transition. The doctor they talk to you would never even question that he was ever born female.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01605z2/Sam_and_Evan_From_Girls_to_Men/

Useful links

Hi all,

Please can you post your links and notes from your presentations. Here is a link to the Peter Hall National Theatre's Production of 12th Night, with production images. Here is a link to a production at the Donmar Warehouse.

There is a production at Saddlers Wells until November by Zoo Nation dance company 'Some Like it Hip Hop' based on 12th Night. I have seen this company's work in Edinburgh, and they are fantastic. Maybe we could organise a trip? Click here for link to Time Out deal for tickets.

Keep researching, looking and gathering!
Have a good weekend,
Emma x

Vanessa and Virginia

Hi all,
As promised, here is some info about my show that will be on in Cambridge tomorrow night. The show is 'Vanessa and Virginia' produced by my theatre company, Moving Stories

Click HERE for production information for Cambridge, for those of you who want to give Nandos a miss!

Thanks,
Em x

Shakespeare: Basic Timeline

See this link for a succinct overveiw of Shakey's lifetime.....!

Twelfth Night production going into Duke of York's Theatre!

After doing some research into productions and adaptations of Twelfth Night, I came across this page, the RSC is returning to London with Gregory Doran's production of 'Twelfth Night' at the Duke Of York's Theatre, following its successful run in Stratford-Upon-Avon.

http://www.londontheatredirect.com/play/764/Twelfth-Night-tickets.aspx

And to add to the chat about the Twelfth Night after Christmas and etc, the 6th is also the Epiphany which in the past has been traditionally a day for playing practical jokes like April Fools and in Greece and Cyprus, customs on this day revolve around the Great Blessings Of The Waters. Before the 6th there is a ban on sailing due to tumultuous winter-seas being cleansed of weird goblin-men who try to torment God-fearing Christians during the festive season....

http://www.folger.edu/template.cfm?cid=879

Reasearching Comedy of errors came across this site, seems to be pretty hot on Info plus in depth sinopsis' (sinopsi?) about the plays, and also Shakespeare himself.

After researching Illyria is actually off the Adriatic sea, which we now know as Albania and this is a picture of Albania's coastline where a shipwreck could potentially wash up...

Act One so far...

Act One begins on an Island called Illyria with the lavish Duke Orsino pouring his heart out to his servants. 'If music be the food of love, play on.' He is love sick for the beautiful Olivia, who is in mourning for her late brother and has consented to wearing a veil for seven years to pay the debt of her love to him.
We then meet Viola who has been shipwrecked on this alien island of Illyria. Her twin brother Sebastian was last seen tying himself to a piece of mast in the stormy sea. Viola, whose speech pattern begins quite irregularly due to her emotional distress, quickly pulls herself together and learns of the Duke and Olivia from the Captain shipwrecked with her.
From the way Viola speaks and what she says we can assume she is a gentlewoman of some opulence. She convinces the Captain to disguise her as a boy named Cesario so she can go to work for the Duke.
The next scene of this farcical play introduces Sir Toby Belch, a drunk uncle to Olivia, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, his wealthy drinking buddy unsuccessfully seeking Olivia's heart, and Maria, Olivia's gentlewoman who shuns the men for their loud raucous behaviour. She goes on to warn Feste, Olivia's clown, that his recent absence has angered his Lady.
Meanwhile Viola as Cesario has completely charmed Orsino who now entrusts her/him to go to Olivia and convince her she belongs with the Duke. The scene ends with a dramatic twist when Viola confesses aside that she herself has fallen for the Duke.
Viola goes to the home of Olivia who is asking for the fool to be sent away. Malvolio, Olivia's PA informs her that a young man is waiting to talk to her at the gate and refuses to leave until he has spoken to her. Olivia obliges and instructs Maria to replace her veil...

Language and Devices in 12th Night

In today's session, we will be looking at language. Here is a useful link to an article about Shakespeare's use of Prose. And here follows a copy of the handout that we will be using in today's session:

TEN LITERARY DEVICES AND CONCEPTS

IN SHAKESPEARE’S TWELFTH NIGHT

1. Verse/Prose Usage: Shakespeare wrote his plays using two different kinds of language: verse and prose.  You can tell if a passage is written in verse if

a.)    the words do not go all the way across the page;

b.)    the first word on each line is capitalized, regardless of the sentence break;

c.)    there is a regular rhythm of unstressed and stressed syllables;

d.)    there are usually 10 or 11 syllables in each line.

Example: “O, then unfold the passion of my love;
Surprise her with discourse of my dear faith;
It shall become thee well to act my woes.”
12^th Night, I, 4, lines 24-26

You can tell if a passage is written in prose if

a.) the words go all the way across the page;

b.) the first word of each line does not begin with a capital unless it is the first word of a sentence;

c.) the words do not share a consistent rhythmic pattern.

Example: “What a caterwauling do you keep here? If my lady have not called up 
her steward Malvolio and bid him turn you out of doors, never trust me.”
12^th Night, I, 3, lines 72-74

As a general rule (applicable in about 95% of the cases) you can assume that

a.) upper class characters speak verse; lower class characters speak prose.

Examples: Duke Orsino in verse (almost all the time) versus Feste in prose (almost all the time)

b.) serious material will be in verse; comic material will be in prose;    

Examples:  Orsino explaining his passion for Olivia in verse
The phony letter that fools Malvolio is in prose

c.) noble characters will speak verse; villains will speak prose;

Examples: Sebastian speaks in verse almost always Malvolio speaks in prose almost always

d.) romantic passages will be in verse; non-romantic passages in prose.

Examples: Viola describes in verse how she would love Olivia, I, 5, 269
Feste describes in prose Malvolio’s misperception, IV, 2, 37.   

Watch for places where a character changes from one form to another in the same scene, such as when Viola Act I, scene 5 changes from prose when she banters comically with Olivia to verse when she tells her how cruel and unreasonable her rejection of Orsino’s suit is.

2.Use of Rhyme: Almost all of Shakespeare’s verse is called blank verse, meaning there are 10 or 11 syllables in each line, in iambic pentameter (five units or feet in an unstressed/stressed pattern) and the lines are unrhymed, or blank.  Sometimes Shakespeare will use verse, which is rhymed with similar sounds at the end of the lines.  Such rhymed passages are done to make the contents more formal, or to emphasize the emotional content (Olivia’s rhymed speech on love at the end of Act I, scene 5).  Rhyme and unusual rhythm can be used to evoke magical charms as in Macbeth and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Or they can emphasize musical effects, as in all Feste’s songs in 12^th Night.

3. Unusual Metaphors: One of the dominant qualities of Shakespeare’s language, regardless of the form, is the incidence of unusual comparisons, often expressed in metaphors where the comparison is implied.  When Maria in Act I, scene 5 at line 201 asks Viola to “hoist sail, sir,” she refers to her as if she were a ship that is no longer welcome in port.  Viola answers using the same nautical metaphor: “No, good swabber [sailor]; I am to hull here [remain in port] a little longer.”  Sometimes a comparison can be very elaborate with a number of different parallels drawn between the two things being compared.  In Act I, scene 5, at lines 220 -- 229 Olivia compares Viola’s declaration of Orsino’s love as if it were a sermon in church, based on a text from the Bible.  In Shakespeare’s terms such complex comparisons are called conceits, and they were highly prized by Shakespeare’s audiences.

4. Puns: A pun is a play on words, usually for comic effect.  In Act I, scene 1 of 12^th Night at line 18 Orsino’s servant Curio asks the love-sick duke if he wants to go hunting the “hart,” a male deer.  “Why, so I do, the noblest that I have,” replies Orsino, referring to his heart, the seat of his passion.  Shakespeare’s audience valued such puns more than modern audiences do and found nothing strange in characters using puns in serious situations for serious dramatic purposes.

5. Malaprops: These are words which have been misused for comic effect.  Often uneducated characters are shown misusing words, usually if they have two or more syllables, especially when they are trying to impress others.  For example, in Much Ado About Nothing the uneducated constable Dogberry, who likes to act like an important person,  tells Leonato in Act  III, scene 5, line 43, “Our watch, sir, have indeed comprehended [for ‘apprehended’] two auspicious [for ‘suspicious’] persons.”

6. Taboo Words: Shakespeare has his characters use obscenities when he wishes to emphasize strong emotions.  These obscenities, however, do not refer to sex or bodily waste; they are sacrilegious terms, which treat God’s name in an irreverent fashion, the strongest taboo in Shakespeare’s day.  The two most frequent taboo words are “Zounds” for “God’s wounds” and “Sblood” for “God’s blood.”

7. Bawdy: “Bawdy” is what Shakespeare called sexual references.  Bawdy can be explicit, as in Much Ado About Nothiug when Beatrice in Act III., scene 4 at line 62 says, “I am stuffed,” meaning she has a cold; Margaret answers, “A maid [virgin] and stuffed [meaning pregnant]!”  Or the bawdy can be implicit, as in 12^th Night  in Act II, Scene 5 at line 87 when Malvolio thinks he recognizes Olivia’s handwriting: “By my life, this is my lady’s hand.  These be her very C’s her U’s and her T’s, and thus makes she her great P’s.”  “CUT” spelled a common slang term for a woman’s genitalia, and “P” was a synonym for “piss.”  In Much Ado About Nothing Dogberry in Act III, scene 3, line 26, tells the watchmen, “You are to bid any man stand, in the Prince’s name.”  He means “halt” but references to “stand” in the comedies almost always carry the connotation of a male erection.

8.  Cuckoldry: A man whose wife was unfaithful was called a “cuckold.”  This fear of betrayal was an obsession for Shakespeare’s male characters.  The cuckold was associated with the cuckoo bird, which supposedly laid its eggs in other birds’ nests, much as a man might get a cuckold’s wife pregnant.  According to folklore a cuckold grew horns out of his forehead, invisible to him but plainly seen by everyone else as a badge of his public humiliation.  For example, when Benedick’s friends in Act I, scene 1, line 252 of Much Ado About Nothing, kid him about eventually bearing the yoke of marriage, he responds, “The savage bull may, but if ever the sensible/ Benedick bear it, pluck off the bull’s horns and set/ them in my forehead.”

9. Venereal References: In Shakespeare’s day Europe faced a major public health crisis in the rampant spread of syphilis.  Much like the spread of AIDS today, this sexually transmitted disease, often called the “pox,” had no known cure and was usually fatal.  Furthermore, people were quick to attribute the disease to other countries, so that the English called it the “French disease,” just as the French blamed the Italians, and the Italians blamed the Spanish.  In its final stages the most notable symptom of syphilis is the loss of hair.  Shakespeare’s plays contain many references to this condition, almost all of them humorous.  For example, in Act I, scene 2 of  A Midsummer Night’s Dream, one character describes a phony beard he wants to wear as being “French crown colored,” that is, the golden yellow of a kind of coin called a French crown.  His friend responds, “Many French crowns [heads] have no hair at all,” that is, suffer from advanced syphilis. In 12^th Night Sir Andrew uses references to syphilis as casual oaths in Act III, Scene 4, at lines 291 and 294.

10. Oxymoron: An oxymoron is a self-contradictory phrase, something that cancels itself.  Such common phrases as “jumbo shrimp” or “freezer burn” really don’t belong together.  Shakespeare most often used oxymoronic phrases or concepts to talk about love and how it makes us feel “bittersweet” or “sweet sorrow.”  In 12^th Night in Act IV, scene 2 at line 37 Feste uses several oxymorons for comic effect when he tells the deluded Malvolio, who complains of being locked in a dark room, “Why, it hath bay windows transparent as barricadoes [barricades], and the clerestories [sky lights] toward the south north are as lustrous as ebony.”

Project Kick Off!

Hello all - welcome to our project Blog. Let's enrich these pages with ideas, references, links, images and reminders of our rehearsal sessions. Take a little bit of time to familiarise yourself with blogging - but have a go at posting straight away! 

Click here for a link to the GLOBE Theatre. 

Happy blogging! 

E x