Twelfth Night: It’s the evening before Epiphany, the final day of the Christmas festival that commemorates the time when the three wise men, the Magi, visited Bethlehem to bring gifts to Jesus. It marks the end of a festival, or a carnival, both pagan and christian, in which food and drink, carousing into the night, […]
In the critical literature on Twelfth Night, as far as I can tell from a survey of reading lists and the titles and contents of books and articles, there is very little about the plague. Critics refer of course to Olivia’s comment that falling in love can be as quick as catching the plague; but […]
Editions There are many editions of Twelfth Night and what you choose will depend on the content you want and the format. I tend to work with three editions: firstly, the Arden 3rd Series, which is the most scholarly and provides a comprehensive gloss on words, phrases and editorial choices; secondly, the Arden Performance Edition […]
Meet our dramaturge, Peter Bradbury. Welcome to the Curtain Theatre video blog where we will bring you backstage to meet the production crew, designers and actors to share in some of the fun we are having with “Twelfth Night”. In this video we will introduce you to our dramaturge, Peter Bradbury.
* Indicates a note at the end of the blog When Meg Page, townswoman, friend of Alice Ford, mother of Anne Page and a merry wife of one of Windsor’s leading merchants, one of the two Merry Wives of Windsor, receives a letter professing love from the dissolute hustler knight Sir John Falstaff, she recognizes […]
As a visual spectacle, The Merry Wives of Windsor is little more than knockabout comedy. It ranges from farce to the subtle humor of gesture. It’s good knockabout, mind you, and despite the preposterous improbability of the plot it is vastly entertaining. Its theater is very domestic and in this respect it can be linked […]
It has become a truism that Shakespeare’s plays are rich and complex. That is one of the reasons they have remained at the top of the chart for five centuries. But that complexity can often seed confusion in the minds of both audience and actors. Shakespeare appears to say contradictory things about his characters, and […]
Windsor is thirty (30) miles west of central London, just beyond Heathrow airport. It is often linked to London but is officially within the Royal County of Berkshire. Historically it has been associated with two major institutions: Windsor Castle, built 1070-86 by William the Conqueror; and Eton College, founded in 1440 by King Henry VI […]
EDITIONS There are many editions of The Merry Wives of Windsor and what you choose will depend on the content you want and the format. I tend to use two editions: firstly, the Arden, which is the most scholarly and provides a comprehensive gloss on words, phrases and editorial choices; and secondly, the RSC version […]
One of the best ways to understand Shakespeare’s thinking about a range of themes that appear in his plays is to look at relevant sonnets. In Merry Wives an important theme is anticipation. All the men in the play are anticipating or expecting to gain something or someone. It is one of the things that […]