Shakespeare’s 21st play is a romantic comedy that, while produced in 1600, seems quite relevant to a contemporary audience, dealing with social issues like gender norms and other pressing problems like climate change and related ecological disasters.
Directed by Fran Gebhard and presented through UVic’s Phoenix Theatre, Twelfth Night is set in what may be our near future, after a series of natural disasters such as hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, and wildfires. The play is originally set in Illyria, which is a southeastern region in the Balkan Peninsula of Europe, but Gebhard has set this iteration on coastal Vancouver Island, near Tofino.
Gebhard’s intent is partly to showcase some pressing ecological concerns, but it’s also to show the importance of relationships, particularly during difficult times.
“The main theme of the play is love, and if I put that against the backdrop of these natural disasters, my message would be, in this day and age, when we have so much going on in the world, when we have wars and a very uncertain political situation here in North America, what you need is love,” says Gebhard. “You need relationships, you need friends, you need family, you need to rely on one another. You need love to survive.”
Twelfth Night was chosen democratically by students, but also partly because of the makeup of the third- and fourth-year acting company: this year there were many women in the department, and this aligned with Shakespeare’s own interests in gender fluidity, since several women are playing the roles of men.
“Shakespeare was very interested in gender-bending, and because he had a company of male actors, men often played women,” says Gebhard. “I think it was interesting for him to have men playing women playing men.”
An ardent fan of Shakespeare, Gebhard has retained the original text and dialogue rather than changing the language to adhere to modern language standards.
“Shakespeare’s language is absolutely beautiful,” she says. “I tell the students you don’t have to manufacture emotion because you will get the emotions from the beautiful text that Shakespeare, a genius playwright, has written.”
Gebhard has been involved with the theatre world since she was about six years old, when she would frequently attend theatre with her parents. As an acting student, she got the opportunity to direct her first play, which, despite being several decades ago, was also Twelfth Night. Eventually she took on the mantle of instructor, which is where everything really fell into place.
“I really, really enjoy it; I absolutely love the students, and I love my job, and that is that is 100 percent true,” says Gebhard. “The students keep you young. I love sharing my passion with the students, they’re very enthusiastic about classes, about learning how to act. I teach acting for the stage and for film and television, and I get up every day and I really can’t wait to get to the theatre.”
One treat for audiences is that Gebhard has included live modern music, as well as other cultural references familiar to modern viewers, and she believes it will be a good night out on the town.
“One of the things that I have added to the show that is not of Shakespeare’s invention is modern music,” she says. “I have a live guitarist, and she will be playing riffs by Bruce Cockburn and various other people. There’s lots of cultural references in the piece, so I think it should be fun for the audience, as it’s a comedy.”
Twelfth Night
Various times, Thursday, March 13 to Saturday, March 22
Various prices, Phoenix Theatre, UVic
phoenixtheatres.ca