Twelfth Night

This workshop production of “Twelfth Night” grew out of a reading of the play which Antaeus Academy Company did for the Met Theatre’s Shakespeare Marathon in October of 2003. And we didn’t choose the play, the play chose us. One of our members pulled the title from a hat, and we became responsible for the reading this last and most lyrical of Shakespeare’s high comedies. As we looked for a way into the play, we discovered that “Twelfth Night” draws a great Shakespeare’s high comedies. As we looked for a way into the play, we discovered that “Twelfth Night” draws a great deal of emotional and intellectual power from the conflict between love and time .

“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”

By the end of the play, some of the characters have found love in time, and other’s haven’t. And it’s the imperfections of this world that make “Twelfth Night” resonate so deeply. Like ours, it’s hilarious, poignant, sometimes savage world, and there are many people—Antonios and Malvolios—who lose. But with patience, time, and a little bit of luck, a few also manage to win.