Yale Rep Shakespeare The Twelfth Night review
Linda Li
Ms. Guarino
IB HL Theater
7 April 2019
The Twelfth Night is so far the best theater live show I have ever seen. I have to admit that I was surprised by how great and amazing the play is, this play has exceed my expectation. For me, shakespeare is always boring and difficult to read. The old English and twisted plots always combine to confuse me. To be truthful I did not enjoy reading any of shakespeare's plays in books. When I saw the play we are going to watch is shakespeare's play I was a bit low and worried, which is because I was afraid that I cannot understand the play and it ends up to be very boring and long. Also, I have few knowledge about Afrofuturism, and I personally favor traditional theater that exactly follows the original writer script. However, the VR effect, sound effects, color of background and stage and costumes, actors and actresses, the very different characteristics of each character, and the set up of the stage surprised me greatly.
First to talk about the set up of the stage, the stage is a traditional and classic type of theater. The stage is a rectangular shape and the audience are sitting directly in front of it. Just to bring up, the theater was splitter into 2 floors that we were sitting in the second floor when watching the play. The stage also has wooden hollow screens on the life and right side of it, and there was a sheer screen in front of the stage when the play was about to start and during the boring of Malvolio's scene. This is an obvious sign of futurism here because there were no electric screen during Shakespeare's stage. The wooden hollow screens gave me a also similar sense of ancient china buildings and rooms. I think, the authors did really a good job of showing the time periods of the story, which was old royal family on Illyria. And the characters can come out both from the back and the 2 sides of stage is really interesting for me. During the play, every corner of the seen stage was used and none place on the stage seems boring and empty.
The color of light of the background of the stage was constantly changing to match the atmosphere of the scenes. For example, when Olivia first shows up, the background light into yellow. And yellow, is a representation of power and royalty. This match exactly Olivia's personality, setting, and identity.
The VR effects were also really cool that it definitely caught the audiences's eyes. The casting of photos and shapes on the sheer screen creates a sense of futurism and mysterious. surprisingly, I though that traditional old theater will not work will with modern machines and technology since they come from time periods that are really far from each other and conservative audience like me will not like it. I personally thought the add-in of futurism would be really weird in an ancient play. However, the characters' costume and the music combined into a harmony that have made futuristic stuff seemed flow not weird in the play. This is truly amazing! My favorite actor is the fool, Feste, because he was always willingly to do extreme and funny things. The fake love letter from Olivia to Malvolio, singing with Sir Toby and Sir Andrew in the kitchen during midnight and all other things combined with a fact that he also has a beautiful voice and cool signing talent. The special effects of his voice is so cool when her was singing because it is so modern and advanced and "electric" that i was surprised how beautiful and cool his voice is.
Also, the costumes of every character is very foreign and ancient to show the time periods and each of them represent its owner's personality. For example, Olivia's costume is always fancy and beautiful to highlight her beauty and position. The costume of Viola is very boyish because she looks totally like a young men in that costume. These matches the background of a mysterious island called Illyria. And it has a very heavy taste of afropunk culture. Every character seems very different from each other and each of them all kind shares the similar importance on the stage. What I think is truly amazing about the director is that he made everyone on the stage unique and shiny.
I did not have any problems of having black people act the show out. The dark skin, accent, and race brought an interesting effect to shakespeare's show. And it came out to be more interesting and flow as I thought it would be, boring and weird.
Ms. Guarino
IB HL Theater
7 April 2019
The Twelfth Night is so far the best theater live show I have ever seen. I have to admit that I was surprised by how great and amazing the play is, this play has exceed my expectation. For me, shakespeare is always boring and difficult to read. The old English and twisted plots always combine to confuse me. To be truthful I did not enjoy reading any of shakespeare's plays in books. When I saw the play we are going to watch is shakespeare's play I was a bit low and worried, which is because I was afraid that I cannot understand the play and it ends up to be very boring and long. Also, I have few knowledge about Afrofuturism, and I personally favor traditional theater that exactly follows the original writer script. However, the VR effect, sound effects, color of background and stage and costumes, actors and actresses, the very different characteristics of each character, and the set up of the stage surprised me greatly.
First to talk about the set up of the stage, the stage is a traditional and classic type of theater. The stage is a rectangular shape and the audience are sitting directly in front of it. Just to bring up, the theater was splitter into 2 floors that we were sitting in the second floor when watching the play. The stage also has wooden hollow screens on the life and right side of it, and there was a sheer screen in front of the stage when the play was about to start and during the boring of Malvolio's scene. This is an obvious sign of futurism here because there were no electric screen during Shakespeare's stage. The wooden hollow screens gave me a also similar sense of ancient china buildings and rooms. I think, the authors did really a good job of showing the time periods of the story, which was old royal family on Illyria. And the characters can come out both from the back and the 2 sides of stage is really interesting for me. During the play, every corner of the seen stage was used and none place on the stage seems boring and empty.
The color of light of the background of the stage was constantly changing to match the atmosphere of the scenes. For example, when Olivia first shows up, the background light into yellow. And yellow, is a representation of power and royalty. This match exactly Olivia's personality, setting, and identity.
The VR effects were also really cool that it definitely caught the audiences's eyes. The casting of photos and shapes on the sheer screen creates a sense of futurism and mysterious. surprisingly, I though that traditional old theater will not work will with modern machines and technology since they come from time periods that are really far from each other and conservative audience like me will not like it. I personally thought the add-in of futurism would be really weird in an ancient play. However, the characters' costume and the music combined into a harmony that have made futuristic stuff seemed flow not weird in the play. This is truly amazing! My favorite actor is the fool, Feste, because he was always willingly to do extreme and funny things. The fake love letter from Olivia to Malvolio, singing with Sir Toby and Sir Andrew in the kitchen during midnight and all other things combined with a fact that he also has a beautiful voice and cool signing talent. The special effects of his voice is so cool when her was singing because it is so modern and advanced and "electric" that i was surprised how beautiful and cool his voice is.
Also, the costumes of every character is very foreign and ancient to show the time periods and each of them represent its owner's personality. For example, Olivia's costume is always fancy and beautiful to highlight her beauty and position. The costume of Viola is very boyish because she looks totally like a young men in that costume. These matches the background of a mysterious island called Illyria. And it has a very heavy taste of afropunk culture. Every character seems very different from each other and each of them all kind shares the similar importance on the stage. What I think is truly amazing about the director is that he made everyone on the stage unique and shiny.
I did not have any problems of having black people act the show out. The dark skin, accent, and race brought an interesting effect to shakespeare's show. And it came out to be more interesting and flow as I thought it would be, boring and weird.
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