The BBC’s Twelfth Night: a review
In this essay, I am going to review the first four scenes of Act 1 in the BBC’s movie adaptation of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. I will look at the acting, casting, diction, set, music, costume and camera work to analyse if it was successful in compiling a movie from a piece of outstanding literature from William Shakespeare.
A play read and a play performed are two entirely different things; nature, reactions and tones of characters become paramount in the movies (and sometimes in theatre). The BBC’s production makes some interesting choices in how characters behave and relate and uses many different camera angles.
First of all, Viola (played by Felicity Kendal) appears at first as a shipwreck survivor. I think this is not clearly shown and without the speech it would be impossible to tell that Viola and the captain had just survived a shipwreck. As a movie this is poor but however in an Elizabethan theatre without the diction nothing would be understood. The purpose of this movie could be to recreate this play in theatre form. Viola wears a shapeless cloak and hood that a man could be seen wearing. To enter Orsino's room she dons masculine clothes, and Felicity Kendall behaves and acts excellently; her tones are varied and her character is of the typical Shakespearean youth. In theatre, her femininity would not be obvious however in this movie (mainly because of the close up shots) her womanly nature peers through her disguise as Cesario. She was inexpressive and unconcerned when Orsino talks about her femininity; this was brilliant acting. I expected Viola to be younger.
