UW THEATRE AND PERFORMANCE
Or, What You Will
"Nothing that is so is so"
A DARK COMEDY
Twelfth Night
A ROMANTIC COMEDY
"I am not what I am"
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Why We Do The Dramaturgy Hub
We created the Dramaturgy Hub to help audiences better understand the characters, themes, and questions within the production. We hope it encourages you to think more deeply about the play and continue the conversation after the performance.
Disguising Deception and Desperation; An Exploration of True Desires in Twelfth Night, or What You Will
"I am not what I am"
The portrayal of masking true emotions and intentions in Twelfth Night, or What You Will invites more chaos than romantic harmony and leads many characters on a pathway of subconscious desperation for the truth.
A Happy Ending? Malvolio, Mental Illness, and Cruelty in Twelfth Night, or What You Will
"I’ll be revenged on the whole pack of you"
Although Twelfth Night, or What You Will ends with celebration and romantic pairings, Malvolio leaves humiliated and angry. This article explores my digital self-portrait, A Happy Ending?, as a way to examine Malvolio’s emotional journey , the treatment of madness in the play, and the unequal distribution of happiness at the end of the comedy.
Caught in the Pendulum: Countess Olivia and the Tension Between Fate and Choice in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, or What You Will
"Not too fast! Soft, soft! Even so quickly may one catch the plague?"
Exploring Olivia's experiences in Twelfth Night, or What You Will reveals the tension between fate and personal control in the fluid world of love and romance. Through Olivia’s journey, Shakespeare presents love as pendulum-like, swinging between individual choice and forces beyond human control.
No Such Thing As Enough: A Look Into Excess and Desire in Twelfth Night, or What You Will
"If music be the food of love, play on, Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die"
An examination of how mourning traditions, religious beliefs during the Elizabethan era, and Shakespeare’s experience with grief are presented in Twelfth Night, or What You Will.
Performing Honour - Who Gets to Be a Gentleman
in Twelfth Night, or What You Will?
"I swear I am not that I play"
Through Viola, Lady Andrea, and Antonia, Twelfth Night, or What You Will shows that being a gentleman is less about someone’s identity and more about how well they perform status, courage, loyalty, and control.
Death Rituals & Mourning - A Look at How Grief Shaped Twelfth Night, or What You Will
"And water once a day her chamber round
With eye-offending brine—all this to season
A brother’s dead love, which she would keep fresh
And lasting in her sad remembrance"
In Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, or What You Will, Orsino and Olivia represent a satirically unique dynamic, in which they serve as a vehicle to dissect self-indulgence, bodily appetite, and the performative nature of desire
A Night Without Rules: Celebration, Escapism and Identity in Twelfth Night, or What You Will
"Present mirth hath present laughter. What's to come is still unsure"
This article explores how the spirit of partying and celebration in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, or What You Will, represents freedom, escapism, and self-expression, mainly through characters like Sir Toby Belch. While these characters enjoy breaking away from society's rules and expectations, the play also shows how this behaviour can be harmful. By showing characters excessive drinking, conflicts, and the consequences of their actions, Shakespeare shows that having fun and enjoying freedom can come at a cost. Moreover, I want to consider how the play raises an important question: why do people feel the need to escape their everyday responsibilities, and what happens when their enjoyment starts to affect the people around them?
"Admirable Fooling" - The Role of the Fool in Shakespeare and Beyond?
"Wit, if it be thy will, put me into good fooling!"
What is a fool? Feste’s role in Twelfth Night, or What You Will is not only shaped by her function in the story, but by several centuries worth of real-world fools and the services they offered. This article examines how Feste's character aligns with and diverges from the historical examples of “the Fool”.
Appetite, Excess, and Antithesis
"Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken and so die"
The world of Twelfth Night, or What You Will oscillates quickly between antithetical excesses of grief and joy, loss and abundance. When we dramaturgs started our work researching Twelfth Night, or What You Will,
we asked a question to ourselves: what is an excess of mine?