Course:Songs in Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
When I was young, not yet a teenager, I was taken to see a production of William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night by Winnipeg theatre company Shakespeare in the Ruins. As might often be the case with young people, the thought of having to engage with such a classical piece of theatre did not excite me.
Shakespeare in the Ruins was founded in 1993. They are a summer season Shakespeare company that performs plays by both the bard, in addition to new topically related work, out in St. Norbert, Manitoba at the ruins of an old trappist monastery.
SIR shows take place all over the monastery grounds. Upon arrival, patrons are give light and low chairs to carry with them from one scene to the next, moving with the roving show. Set pieces at each location are minimal (and often nonexistant) and actors must fight against the outdoor elements (glaring sun, roaring winds, biting bugs and everything from sprinkling to pouring rain) in order to share their story with an eager and rapt audience.
When I was 12 (or maybe it was 11), I was not entering this experience as the ideal audience member. The long bus ride out from East Kildonan to the Trappist Monastery Provincial Heritage Park was a drag. The weather was chilly and damp. I was not feeling up to the task of dragging myself and chair all over god's creation just to watch some folks I did not know tromp and prance around spouting nonsense in a language I didn't understand. This was going to suck.
However, as was often the case for my overactive and arrogant young self, I was so, so wrong.
The production adopted a 1940s Venetian style (and not knowing that the play actually takes place in a more Balkan region, this did not bother me at all), had supremely high stakes and was full of music.
I was absolutely mystified by the ways in which with only their bodies and their words, this company of actors BUILT WORLDS, right before our eyes. I didn't understand most of the specifics of what was being said and yet, through their clear intentions and relationships I received the emotional tenor of each moment. I received the story. I did not know that such a thing could be done.
Beginning with the wonderfully powerful line, "If music be the food of love, play on", Twelfth Night is all about the music. For me, this aspect is what really tied things together. There are many songs and catches and bits of music throughout, but there were 3 moments in the play that allowed my understanding of the story to go beyond what was right in front of me and transcend to a higher place.
Feste, the fool, sings 3 songs.
1. Act 2, Scene 3 - a love song colored with hints of loss
O mistress mine, where are you roaming?
O, stay and hear! Your truelove’s coming,
That can sing both high and low.
Trip no further, pretty sweeting.
Journeys end in lovers meeting,
Every wise man’s son doth know.
What is love? ‘Tis not hereafter.Present mirth hath present laughter.
What’s to come is still unsure.
In delay there lies no plenty,
Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty.
Youth’s a stuff will not endure.
2. Act 2, Scene 4 - a sad song to illicit sadness in a sad man
Come away, come away, death,
And in sad cypress let me be laid.
Fly away, fly away, breath,
I am slain by a fair cruel maid.
My shroud of white, stuck all with yew,
O, prepare it!
My part of death, no one so true
Did share it.
Not a flower, not a flower sweet
On my black coffin let there be strown;
Not a friend, not a friend greet
My poor corpse, where my bones shall be thrown.
A thousand thousand sighs to save,
Lay me, O, where
Sad true lover never find my grave,
To weep there.
3. Act 5, Scene 1 - a song about the stages of life, with hope for the future
When that I was and a little tiny boy,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
A foolish thing was but a toy,
For the rain it raineth every day.
But when I came to man’s estate,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
’Gainst knaves and thieves men shut their gate,
For the rain it raineth every day.
But when I came, alas, to wive,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
By swaggering could I never thrive,
For the rain it raineth every day.
But when I came unto my beds,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
With tosspots still had drunken heads,
For the rain it raineth every day.
A great while ago the world begun,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
But that’s all one, our play is done,
And we’ll strive to please you every day.
These are all songs and not technically poems, and so I am a little bit cheating... but they are all in prose so I will argue that they qualify just fine.
Regardless, this production has been one of the greatest influences on my life as an artist to date. It had me say, "I want to do that." In this current cultural moment and climate we can have the "to Shakespeare or not to Shakespeare" debate until we are blue in the face. In my opinion, "to" or "to not" perform his plays is the less interesting question. What we should be talking about instead, and this goes for any story we wish to share, is purpose. What is the purpose behind telling this story, this way, at this time? And it's that pursuit of purpose and of humanity that he was after in his stories, through their deeply intentional characters.
This past spring I was cast in the 2023 Shakespeare in the Ruins production of Twelfth Night. Working on this show with this particular company of artists was a transformative experience for me as an actor, storyteller and human. As a writer, I will never deny that the man invented language. It is such a wonderful thing towards which to aspire.
The thing really did come full circle for me. And holy smokes, we had so much fun.