Midsummer Magazine 2007 - Utah Shakespearean Festival

Prestige RealtyReal EstateIs OurPassion!www.southernUTrealestate.com463 W. 200 N. • 877-586-2112 or 435-586-2112You'll enjoy this year'sproduction of The Tempest. Butyou don't need a tempest in yourlife when you buy a car or pickup.We believe that you'll enjoydealing with Lunt Motor. Nopressure. No hidden charges. Nosurprises. We promise you a treat,not a treatment, when you buya Dodge or Chrysler from us.®Since 1934Cedar City, Utah • 435-586-6591St. George, Utah • 435-673-3241made the Adriatic unsafe. By Shakespeare’stime, however, the Balkans had taken onthe additional characteristic of an unconventionallocale perched dangerously onthe great divide between Christendom andIslam where the infusion of many differenttribes and cultures created a flavorful stewof gypsies, mountaineers, prostitutes, andother socially marginalized creatures whodwelt alongside the truly devout followersof two wildly divergent religions. In fact,George Sandys, a well-known Renaissanceauthor of travel literature, wrote the followingcolorful description of Illyrians duringhis voyage to the region in 1610, justnine years after Twelfth Night was first produced:“The men wear half-sleeved gownsof violet cloth with bonnets of the same.They nourish only a lock of hair on thecrown of their heads, the rest all shaven.The women wear theirs not long and dyethem black for the most part. Their chiefcity is Ragusa, heretofore Epidaurus, acommonwealth of itself, famous for merchandiseand plenty of shipping” (from ARelation of a Journey Begun Anno Domini1610).Into this exotic world of pirates, gypsies,religious fanatics, and other semi-fictionalizedinhabitants, Shakespeare depositsViola, his recently shipwrecked heroine,whose disconnect between her abandonedcondition and the foreign universe she nowinhabits liberates her from responsibilityand facilitates the discovery of her trueidentity unencumbered by social, moral, orgender restrictions. Although she initiallyadopts a male disguise for self-preservation,Viola soon discovers that men inthe Renaissance were permitted muchmore flexibility in their social and moralendeavors than their female counterparts.Impersonating a young man, she enjoysthe luxury of getting to know Orsino as afriend and confidant as they slowly fall inlove with each other. The same regenerativeeffect of liberty may be seen in Olivia’ssudden infatuation with Cesario, whichpermits the heiress to shed her mourningpretense and experience the genuine, heartfeltpassion that she later happily bestowson Sebastian.Perhaps the most obvious embodimentof Twelfth Night’s Illyrian atmosphereis Feste the Clown, whose inspired anticsturn the world of the play upside down,especially in his impersonation of Sir Topas12 • Midsummer Magazine 2007