William Shakespeare
What You Will
Twelfth Night, or What You Will
Director: Janusz Kica
Romantic love comedy
Twelfth Night, or What You Will (1601) is a comedy by William Shakespeare (1564–1616), one of the world’s greatest dramatist.
As early as at the beginning of his career in theatre William Shakespeare (1564–1616) was named "Shake-scene” by his contemporary Robert Green. At the time the name was meant as a sarcastic remark, but turned out to be a prophetic praise for the genius playwright, who set foundations of the English language and greatly changed the Elizabethan theatre.
A rhythmically harmonious comedy Twelfth Night, or What You Will set in Illyria was for the first time performed on the evening before the Three Kings Day (the twelfth night after Christmas) in 1601 in the court of Elizabeth I.
Twelfth Night, or What You Will is a comedy of unusual events, unexpected love entanglements, identity changes, identity mix-ups and sarcastic scoffing. It begins with Orsino’s romantic longing for Olivia, continues with mourning for lost family members. A melancholic beginning, however, is in the third scene replaced by cheerful comic scenes with blabber mouth Maria, convivial Sir Toby and not very smart Sir Andrew. When Viola changes into Cesario and turns into an object of desire, the love game becomes more complicated. ‘If this were played upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction,’ said Shakespeare with self-irony.
The play was put on the Stara dvorana stage by Janusz Kica, a Polish director who keeps the audiences enthused by his subtle perfected directions. His plays in Drama Maribor – from The Three Musketeers (1994), America (1996) to Peer Gynt (2009) – were successful and awarded. Shakespeare’s comedy What You Will drew his attention again (for the first time he directed it in 1996 in the German theatre Theater der Stadt Koblenz) because he feels close to dark comedies combining tragic and comic elements.
Cast
Eva KrašKsenija Mišič
Vlado Novak
Tadej Toš
Branko Jordan
Mateja Pucko
Aleš Valič k. g.
Matija Stipanič
Matevž Biber
Nejc Ropret
Davor Herga
Viktor Meglič
Zvone Funda
Samir Azzeh, Gorazd Strlič
Photo gallery
Photo: Damjan Švarc
Photo: Damjan Švarc
Photo: Damjan Švarc
Photo: Damjan Švarc
Photo: Damjan Švarc
Photo: Damjan Švarc
Photo: Damjan Švarc
Photo: Damjan Švarc
Photo: Damjan Švarc
Photo: Damjan Švarc
Photo: Damjan Švarc
Photo: Damjan Švarc
Photo: Damjan Švarc
Photo: Damjan Švarc
Photo: Damjan Švarc
Photo: Damjan Švarc
Photo: Damjan Švarc
Photo: Damjan Švarc
Photo: Damjan Švarc
Photo: Damjan Švarc
Photo: Damjan Švarc
Photo: Damjan Švarc
