Twelfth Night     WS   21,333 words      SOL  14,502 words              68%               77 pages
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Twelfth Night is Shakespeare's most mature comedy. Interestingly, it works well for 8s or 12s. For grade 8s, Illyria can be a place where women dress up as men, funny knights drink too much, and then play a trick with a letter. For older students, it can be a place filled with longing where most characters are lonely, unhappy and deceiving themselves. Viola and Sebastion change many lives when they are tossed up on the shores of Illyria. 

As is usual with professional productions, Feste loses the most text. Elizabethan clowns got their laughs with topical references; modern audiences tire of the obscure, fairly quickly. Toby loses most of his latin and some of his nonsense biz with Sir Andrew. The second Olivia/Viola scene was cut quite severely in the pursuit of clarity.

With older students, encourage them to create the inner lives of the characters. Is Sir Toby's alcoholism perhaps so bad that he is  urinating blood? Is that why he is such a bully? Perhaps Maria is desperate to save him from himself. Does Olivia know that she looks stunning in black? Of course she does. Does Sir Andrew have any true friend in the world? Does his mother even love him? Does Malvolio play dress-up at night, in his room, alone? Is Viola going to be able to shape Orsino into a decent husband? What will the instantaneous marriage of Sebastion and Olivia produce? Will anyone get a real job after the play is over? Etc.  Purchase

 Some Russian actors obviously perform Shakespeare with great gusto.