True Love Trickster

True Love Trickster

Will Viola Duel For Love?

 

For eons, storytellers have delighted in telling stories about tricksters who cleverly alter their identity to achieve certain goals. These characters often possess a great degree of intellect or secret knowledge that is used to play tricks on others. The tricks can include disobeying rules and conventions that are supposed to keep social customs and beliefs intact. When that happens, confusion ensues. 

The confusion, as it turns out, is what’s needed to shake things up; to help society take a second – or third - look at itself. When done with humor, it can produce valuable insights that can loosen up assumptions about such rigidly held definitions as what is true love and who gets to have it?

According to Viola, the trickster of Shakespeare’s play, Twelfth Night, true love came after she disguised herself as a man. It was safer for her to do so following a shipwreck on Illyria where she was separated from her twin Sebastian.

She initially changed her identity to protect herself. Ironically that very change is what allowed her to be in close proximity to someone she fell deeply in love with.  That set off a chain of gender bending events which created mayhem for those questing for true love.  

In the end, the characters show the audience the nature of true love; that it is not bound by gender but, simply, by the capacity to give and receive it. 

Such a truth remains timeless and that may be why Twelfth Night continues to delight audiences. 

Written about 500 years ago, it will come to life on stage in Marin Shakespeare Company’s upcoming production performed July 22 through August 21 at Forest Meadows Amphitheatre at Dominican University of California in San Rafael.  

When asked about the historical relationship between true love and gender roles on stage, Marin Shakespeare Company Director Lesley Schisgall Currier commented that plays such as Twelfth Night, confirm that same-sex relationships are not “a particularly contemporary idea.”

“I believe Shakespeare, with his tremendous ability to empathize with so many different kinds of people, could easily understand same-sex attraction.” In fact, she added, “Shakespearean theatre definitely celebrated, and in the comedies, laughed at the idea of homoeroticism. The actor playing Viola was a man dressed as a girl pretending to be a man in love with a man and pursued by a man pretending to be a girl.  The gender confusion adds to the confusion all the character feel about being in love — how much we enjoy the pain, how quickly we feel the passion, how silly we become.”

The search for true love can do that. It can make people fools and full-hearted, and that’s the point. A trickster like Viola – at the center of this play - triggers an avalanche of mistaken identity that opens the floodgates society holds about love and romance. Even the most upright of characters, freed from the confines of tradition, swoons with the imaginings of true love’s possibilities.

It is interesting to note that when casting for Viola’s role, played by Elena Wright (Member, Actors Equity Association), the director wasn’t looking for someone who could play a ‘boyish’ role. Instead, she said, the role required someone who could help the audience suspend its beliefs about gender. That meant, the character had to be “a really great actress, who can be vulnerable, funny, highly intelligent, and who can bring Shakespeare’s language to life.” 

Want to know more? The play opens next week!

If You Go:

Twelfth Night runs July 22 to Aug. 21, 2016.  Admission at the door is $35 general; $32 senior; and $10 youth (25 and under). Preview performances $12 per person. "Pay Your Age" is offered to audience members between the ages of 26 and 34 when purchasing tickets at the Box Office on the day of any performance, with valid identification. Marin Shakespeare Company also offers those 65+ half-price tickets at Senior Matinees and those 18 and under are free at Family Matinee performances. Details.

Related Information
Folk Heroes 

Is History Abridged Folklore?

The distance between folklore and history is not as vast as many would think. History basically is a way of chronicling events in a time sequence that is specific about the who, what, when, where and why. The information, more or less, has been documented in a way that is 'irrefutable', so to speak. Who can argue with an audio recording of a famous speech like The Reverend Martin Luther King's "I Had A Dream" speech or with the handwritten letters that John Quincy Adams and Thomas Jefferson sent to one another?

Folklore, too, is about chronicling events and customs that have specific value. Only, instead of recording big, cataclysmic or global events, it focuses more upon everyday lives of everyday people. Just think of weather folklore that would dictate when a farmer planted or harvested his fields or rite of passage customs like tying wedding shoes onto the back of the bride and grooms car to show that they are now under one roof.

The two - history and folklore - come together beautifully in the upcoming production of Marin Shakespeare Company's The Complete History of America (abridged) .

Tickling the funny bone of American history is a folkloric way to interpret historical data. This play takes a fast-paced look at what this country's touchstones are in a way that reveals their lighter side. And who can argue with the role of humor in our ability to make sense of ourselves?

The play, made popular by the Reduced Shakespeare Company,attempts in approximately 90 minutes to review almost 600 years of American history, staring with questions that still today incite controversy.

== Who really discovered America?
== Why did Abe Lincoln free the slaves?
== How many Democrats does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Actors (pictured L to R) Darren Bridgett, Cassidy Brown and Mick Mize under the direction of Robert Currier fill the Forest Meadows Amphitheater at Dominican University in San Rafael with a roller coaster of answers. And who's to say these answers are less accurate than any others?

It's important to note here that in history as in folklore, interpretation is everything. It alone tells us what we really think and feel about any given situation. Whoever is telling the story, so to speak, can present the facts, suppositions and suspicions in a way that best reflect his or her cultural values. An Eskimo, for example, might look at ice differently than an Australian because of their relationship to it; their personal experience of the subject.

Even historical scribes, artists and others, such as those credited with writing great historical works such as The Bible were influenced by the times they lived in. Who isn't?

So, take a historical spin across the American landscape - as written by Adam Long, Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor in the mid 1990's - and recently updated by Sonoma playwright Reed Martin for this summer's Marin Shakespeare Company presentation, its second of three for its 2011 Summer Season.

Here are the details:
The Complete History of America (abridged)
July 22- September 25 (Preview: July 22, Opening night: July 30).
Forest Meadows Amphitheater, Dominican University,1475 Acacia Ave., San Rafael, CA
Box Office: (415) 499-4488

Macbeth's Theater Curse in Marin?

In the realm of folklore, magic spells are cast with the intent of doing harm. The results can range from sickness to death. Curses are often vindictive and can come to life, so to speak, long after they are issued. Just think of the Sleeping Beauty fairytale and you get the idea.

They come in many forms. The more common ones include the use of an effigy designed to represent the target. In India, for example, waxed effigies are used. Ancient Egyptians also used waxed effigies upon which they would write the victims' name before tossing them into a fire.

In 17^th century England one curse in particular took to the stage, thanks to William Shakespeare. His portrayal of witches in The Tragedy of Macbeth (often referred to simply as Macbeth) written during the reign of King James who was a witch hunter was – and still is - the cause of much concern among theater folk. It has been recorded that Shakespeare populated the play with spells and witches because he knew these were of interest to the king. But the play also gained the interest of those who practiced the occult arts.

Alleged witches who were being hunted and burned (by the thousands) didn’t like the way they were being portrayed on stage. Dancing around a black cauldron, calling out odd phrases and tossing weird ingredients into the brewing pot was not helping their cause. So, as an act of vengeance it is believed that they cast a spell – a curse – on the play that still haunts it today.

Saying the name Macbeth inside a theater will bring bad luck to the play and to anyone acting in it. Unless, of course, the word is spoken as part of the script. Fortunately, as is the case with most but not all curses, there is a remedy. But it’s not a straightforward one like the type associated with Sleeping Beauty who needed only to be kissed by her true love Prince Charming.

Over the centuries, Shakespearean actors have had to jump through more hoops. The curse-reversing ritual requires the one who utters the word to leave the theater, spin around three times while uttering a profanity and then ask for permission to return to the stage. And yes, as with all remedies, there are variations. In some theater circles, one has to spit over his or her shoulder or repeat the phrase: "Thrice around the circle bound, Evil sink into the ground." Some even believe you can request Shakespeare’s help and then resolve yourself with a quote from Hamlet, such as "Angels and ministers of grace defend us".

So what will The Marin Shakespeare Company performers do during the July 8-August 14, 2011 run of Macbeth that opens their 2011 Summer Festival Season at Dominican University’s Forest Meadows Amphitheater in San Rafael? Will a cast member forget about the curse and possibly bring down or extinguish the night stars that form the theater’s ceiling?

According to Director Lesley Currier, during rehearsal there were “a large number of family emergencies and deaths amongst our cast. But that may be because we have a cast of 29 people. I've seen several actors with scars from the final Macbeth/Macduff duel. It's a grueling role for the title character because he carries so much of the line load, and then at the very end of the evening needs to fight Young Siward and then Macduff. I don't want to tempt the theatre gods by saying much more until our current production closes on August 15!”

Here’s what’s happened elsewhere in the past:

• William Shakespeare himself was forced to play Lady Macbeth during the show’s first performance after the boy designated to play the part suddenly became overcome with sickness and died.
• In 1672, the actor playing Macbeth substituted the blunt stage dagger with a real one, and with it killed his co-actor playing Duncan right in front of the live audience.
• During its 1849 performance at New York's Astor Place, 31 people were trampled to death in a riot that had broken out.
• In 1934, British actor Malcolm Keen turned mute on stage, and his replacement developed a high fever and had to be hospitalized.

To avoid the curse in the first place, cast and crew are sometimes encouraged to refer to the play by its common nicknames, “The Scottish Tragedy” or “The Scottish Play”.

Currier doesn’t encourage or discourage anyone to respect or ignore the curse. “In the theater, you might as well be a little bit superstitious, carrying on traditions of several centuries. I personally touch wood when it seems warranted, and am always aware when I utter the word "Macbeth," particularly in a theater.”

In San Rafael’s outdoor theater setting everyone, including the audience, is exposed to the elements so fingers are crossed for a positive outcome. “So much of what we do depends on the weather cooperating, and actors and crew not getting sick or injured,” noted Currier.

I plan to see the play that has been and continues to be performed by some of the most respected stage and film stars that ever lived because it serves as a reminder that a thirst for power can be dangerous and that there may very well be supernatural forces at work shaping our destinies. Keeping this in mind, of course, I will also make sure I know where the safety exits are. Just in case…

Marin Shakespeare Company is presenting a great menu this season: the cursed Macbeth, The Complete History of America (abridged), and The Tempest. And, as always they have arranged for a variety of viewing options, from previews to Shakespeare-inspired dinners and theater talks. For details, visit the website.