Twelfth Night, or What You Will – 2016 Winter
A play by Shakespeare.
The Play
“What country, friends, is this?” A strange country, indeed. Full of drunks and people yearning for something to fill their empty lives.
After a shipwreck Viola ends up on the coast of Illyria and, disguised as a man, enters the service of the Duke Orsino. Even though she is a stranger in this country the Duke welcomes her and makes her his messenger in love to win the heart of the countess Olivia. However, the countess turns down the duke’s suit and falls in love with the messenger, Viola, now calling herself Cesario. Viola becomes part of a world of love play and self-aggrandizement, in which she herself falls in love with the Duke. Sir Andrew on the other hand, a country twit, loves the countess, as does Malvolio, Olivia’s steward. Sir Toby, Olivia’s kinsman and her servant Maria play their mad game with Malvolio’s hopeless love.
Everyone in Illyria has a yearning to love and to be loved, to give up their identity and to be part of another self. When Viola’s twin brother turns up in Illyria, who is believed to be dead, everything is thrown into confusion. Everyone is in love and nobody knows any longer, who the other person is and who they are themselves.
Shakespeare’s famous comedy Twelfth Night, or What You Will, which was first performed in 1602, is about the madness of being in love and about a new beginning after loss and catastrophe in a world of intoxication, seduction and music.
In this bushed-up, crisp version of the Shakespeare classic, the EDG fully play out the carnavalesque setting of masquerade, merriment, self-deception, mayhem, and love confusion that marks the “Twelfth Night,” the beginning of the carnival season.
Cast and Crew
- Actors: Faye Barth-Farkas, Fred Claussen, Ruth Jansen, Giacomo Rößler, Heiko Eilers, Uwe Rasch, Richard Pollex, Frank Bonczek, Mirja Wenker, Charlotte Lange, Tyge Schmidt, Alexandra Andreou, Sam Sharma, Sarah Thiel
- Piano: Andre Große Brinkhaus
- Lights: Joël Bancroft-Richardson
- Director: Iris Adamzick