Twelfth Night

William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night is mainly a love story between two different couples: Cesario and Lady Olivia and Orsino and Viola. This play deals with mistaken identities which result in mistaken love. In Twelfth Night, Viola falls in love with Duke Orsino while he yearns for Lady Olivia. Duke Orsino tries to attain Olivia's love but since she is mourning over her dead brother she declines his love. Viola then disguises herself as Cesario in order to work for Olivia and Olivia falls for Cesario in the process. At the same time, Viola finds herself in love with Orsino who is still infatuated with Olivia. So Olivia has fallen for another woman disguised as a man which tends to become confusing.

In arriving at Wilson High School's theatre, I was surprised by the theatre's small size because I have been accustomed to our large theatre. The theatre was dim and evidently not as professional as the one at our school. It did not utilize a proscenium stage but rather it looked more like a box. The production's lack of microphones made it difficult to understand the actor's speech. At times it was unclear what they were saying because their dialogue was jumbled together and they did not have clear diction. Some actors also stuttered over their lines maybe due to nerves. The stuttering was not a major issue but it did take away from the actor's portrayal of the character.

The production also had a minimal use of props which focused the audience more on the actor's. This was a good idea on the director's part but wasn't necessarily executed well. Because the props were so minimal, it was difficult to discern the setting because the same props were used throughout the entire production which gave the pretense that the play focused around only one setting. In my opinion, I think that had they used a few more props that really defined the setting, it would have given the audience a better understanding of where they were.

The costumes didn't seem to quite fit the time period because one of the servants was wearing modern-looking jeans rather than the slacks or tights that would have been worn in those times. The costumes were also sloppily put together because some of the actor's had un-tucked shirts and pants that didn't fit (too long). This looked seemed to work for Sir Toby Belch because he portrayed a drunken character, but it appeared not well put together for the other characters. Aside from these details, the production was pretty good. The play at first was difficult to understand, but after the intermission it had greatly improved. I advise that people should read a brief synopsis of the play before attending the production so that they can better understand the production.