Given the sketchy records of the Elizabethan court in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, it's hard to know when this multi-faceted comedy was first performed, but the title and subtitle give us some clues as to the bard's intent.
While present day observances of Twelfth Night (January 6th) are generally confined to the ecclesiastical calendar as the Feast of the Epiphany, in Elizabethan times it was also celebrated as a secular holiday, with an assortment of revelry and mischief.
These contrasting expressions—the sacred and the profane, restraint and revelry—are not only the opposing forces in the play, but are longstanding poles of human behavior around which discussions can be traced back at least as far as classical Greece, where they were symbolized by Apollo, on the one hand, and Dionysus, on the other: a rational and ordered life versus a sensual and spontaneous one.
As director Philip Sneed puts it, "I really think it has to do with an Apollonian versus Dionysian worldview. I go off of the line that Toby Belch says to Malvolio, 'Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?' Meaning, whatever you do and whatever your opinions are, this is going to happen, people are going to party.
"There's a real tension in the play between Apollo and Dionysus, as there has been throughout history: Those folks like Malvolio who believe in order, who believe that there need to be rules, and that the only way people can function effectively and get along and do anything useful is if order is established and enforced; and those folks like Toby Belch, who are infused with a spirit of life that can't be stopped; no rules will stop them."
In the course of the story, this conflict—Malvolio (steward to Olivia, a rich countess) versus Toby Belch (Olivia's kinsman), Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Belch's companion), and Maria (Olivia's lady in waiting)—escalates, leaving us to consider the means for reconciling these opposing world views within ourselves and between ourselves and others.
The playwright interweaves this struggle with the other major dynamic in Twelfth Night: love in its many forms and disguises. Early in the play, Viola, who has survived a shipwreck, masquerades as a man (Cesario) and finds work as a go-between for Orsino (the Duke), in his efforts to woo Olivia.
Her disguise sets in motion many confused feelings: Orsino has feelings for Cesario, but doesn't feel these are appropriate; Olivia grows fond of Cesario and is frustrated by his resistance; while Viola has feelings for Orsino, but is unable to properly express these without blowing her cover.
As is so often the case in Shakespeare, the refined struggles of the nobility are comically paralleled in the behavior of the rustics (common folk); in this case, the crude approaches of Malvolio, Belch, Aguecheek, and Maria serve as a fun house mirror of sorts, hyperbolizing the conduct of their superiors.
One interpretation of the sub-title of the play, What You Will, is that the work is an attempt to capture and condone all these variations of love.
As Sneed sees it, "I think What You Will can apply to the idea that 'love is love' and whatever is attractive to you is okay, which is an interesting and lovely theme."
All of this courting is fed by music, as suggested by Orsino's famous opening remark, "If music be the food of love, play on!" Expect some telling melodies and lyrics that reveal the playwright's musings on these subjects.
"Given our interest in producing the classics, why wouldn't we draw on the expertise of the Colorado Shakespeare Festival? It allows us to bring that period to our audiences and with a group that knows it so well."
The Arvada Center's production of Twelfth Night runs through May 27th. 720-898-7200 or www.arvadacenter.org.
The production then moves to the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, where it runs June 9-Aug. 4 (preview June 8), in repertory with Richard III, Noises Off, Treasure Island, and Women of Will. 303-492-0554 or www.coloradoshakes.org.