If music be      the food of love,             play on ... Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare directed by Harry Wong, III Wednesday, July 30, 8pm Friday, August 1, 8pm Saturday, August 2, 4pm Friday, August 8, 8pm Saturday, August 9, 8pm Sunday, August 10, 4pm

The final play of the 2003 HSF season is one of the most popular comedies of all time, 'Twelfth Night."  In the story that partially inspired 'Shakespeare in Love," Viola, a young noble woman, disguises herself as a man in order to work for Duke Orsino.  When sent to deliver Orsino's love messages to the cold Olivia, Viola is stunned to discover that she is the object of Olivia's affection.

Director's Note
Thornten Wilder said in the early part of the previous century that Shakespeare's power had been diminished by the attempt to make his plays look real.  Real food, real furniture of the period, real accents, etc.  In all the reality the simple truth of human relationships was lost.

Now Shakespeare's power to move us and to make us laugh suffers under the weight of the “concept.”  A concept for me is always some thing a director forces on to an old play in
the attempt to make it relevant to us, today – like setting Anthony and Cleopatra in a power plant to show how the play comments on the nuclear industry.

The problem for both of these ways of doing Shakespeare is that the audiences imagination is cluttered by all that "real" stuff or "concept" stuff.  My hope always is to tell the story and to get everything in the production to support that story.

But since this is a directors note...

Something that is in most of Shakespeare's play's is missing from Twelfth Night, or What You Will – parents.  Without their authority and guilt, the characters are allowed to do what they will.