Love

·       “the only constant feature of love is it instability” – L.G. Salingar

·       “men love women precisely as representations” – Greenblatt

Malvolio

·       “in the prison of his own ego” – A.S. Leggatt

·       “fatal narcissism” – Keir Elam

·       Anthony Sher in 1987 RSC prod became genuinely mad?  At the end of the play he was seen “still essaying cross gartered high kicks as if his wits have finally turned” – Michael Billington

·       Often played w foreign accents → truly an outsider

The Gulling

·       “the joke has been taken too far and we know it” – Ralph Berry

·       Adrian Noble’s 1997 RSC prod: trapped in a dog house, where Feste was feeding him dog food donning an eccentric fake wizard’s beard. So comical that it is too far fetched from reality to be sombre?

Orsino

·       A “narcissistic fool” – Herschel Baker

·       “a lonely dreamer with an idealistic cast of mind” – Schalkwyk

·       Peter Gill’s 1974 RSC prod: “hugging Cesario to his breast with rapturous abandon” – Michael Billington

·       Adrian Noble’s 1997 RSC prod: began w Orsino surrounded by his servants in crushed velvet suits. Effeminate? Indulgent?

·       Mark Strong in 2002 embodied the role as the Petrarchan lover

Antonio and Sebastian

·       Their relationship is actually romantic - Emma Smith

·       Lindsay Posner 2001 RSC prod: in II.i they get up out of an unmade bed together

Women

·       “both women end up as subject to male dominance in the hierarchy of marriage” – Jean Howard

·       “for the women in this play are notably at the mercy of men’s designs” -Kate Flint

Comedy

·       “delicious comedy” – Caroline Spurgeon

·       “silvery undertone of sadness” – John Middleton Murray

Gender

·       “Gender bending is the name of the game” – Lisa Jardine

·    “Sebastian takes a passive, classically feminine role” - Logan

Feste

·       “fools are the only ones who speak frankly and tell the truth” – Erasmus

·       “the predominant figure of comedy is the fool” – Andrew Scott

·       “a tired clown who sports masks because it is the only sanctioned outlet for his insights” – Grief

·       “he knows the world too well” – Lloyd

·       “aching sadness at the very heart of his character” – Makenzi Crouch

·       Trevor Nunn’s 1996 film: he looks into the barrel of the camera while singing we’ll strive to please you everyday

·       Ventriloquism = can often switch effortlessly between accents, e.g. Mark Hadfield in 2001 RSC prod. Constantly hiding behind masks, which is Feste’s real voice?

Viola

·       A blank my lord – perfectly sums up what Viola will be for the rest of the play, “erased, empty, veiled from sight” – Palfrey

·       Her cross dressing does not act as a form of liberation – Anne Barton

·       Judi Dench in 1969 was “attractively ambiguous” (Elam)

Friendship

·       Shakespeare “undermines the nature of true friendship in Twelfth Night” – Raea DiMassino

Sir Andrew

·       A “likeable lunatic” with a “moonstruck pathos” – W.R. Darlington

·       James Dodd in 1771 Drury Lane prod: slow witted; decked out in the colour that Olivia detests, cowardly yellow

Sir Toby

·       Barry Stanton in 2001 threw up over Olivia in I.v

Class

·       Stephen Beresford 2004 Albery production → modern day India to include their caste system, as well as tense relationships between masters and servants

Deception

·       “every character has their masks” – Joseph Summers

Identity

·       “the play calls into question the key idea of a true identity” – Catherine Belsey

Cruelty

·       “there is no feast without cruelty” – Friedrich Nietzsche

Topsy Turvy + Time

·       “the festive desire to hold back the passing of time … to escape from one’s awareness of time passing” – Kate Flint

Ending

·       Tim Carroll 2002 RSC prod → Elizabethan dance

Self-love

·       Giant portrait of Narcissus that dominates the set – Peter Gill’s 1974 RSC

Clothing

·       A sign of status or professional role

·       “TN presents perhaps the most radical vision of the centrality of clothes to the fashioning of a person” – Jones and Stallybrass

Metatheatre

·       v self-conscious – Keir Elam

Olivia

·       Neha Dubey in a 2004 prod: first appears in solemn black sari, but slowly switches to vibrant saris to display her transformation