Twelfth Night
Shakespeare’s play, “Twelfth Night”, has been adapted into many different forms since its publication in the 1600’s. Of those adaptations, Trevor Nunn’s film adaptation (1996) will be the focus of this analysis as it is the most widely known to the modern audience.
Behind the Scenes
Even before directing the film adaptation of “Twelfth Night”, Trevor Nunn had experience in adapting Shakespeare plays into films. Before the release of the “Twelfth Night” film, Nunn had directed and released two other film adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays: “Macbeth” (1979) and “Othello” (1990). Further, Nunn went on to produce two more film adaptations after the debut of “Twelfth Night”: “The Merchant of Venice” (2001) and “King Lear” (2008).
Trevor Nunn, drawing on this experience of Shakespeare plays, sticks to his previous formula of adapting plays into films in the making of the “Twelfth Night” film. Sticking to this same formula meant that Nunn’s “Twelfth Night” adaptation was faithful to the original play; however, it also meant that there would be tweaks to the original play as to give the film more detail or make it more comprehensible to the modern-day audience.
Plot Shakeups
Nunn’s film adaptation generally sticks to the main lines of the original “Twelfth Night” play.
Two identical twins, Viola and Sebastian, are in a ship that gets ship-wrecked off the coast of Illyria. They are both washed ashore thinking one another have drowned. Viola hears of a noblewoman called Olivia who is currently mourning, and will continue to mourn for seven years, due to her brother’s death. However, in the play, Orsino (not Viola) was notified about Olivia’s mourning, to which he remarked, “O, she that hath a heart of that fine frame, to pay this debt of love but to a brother, how will she love, when the rich golden shaft…” (Twelfth Night Act 1, Scene 1, Line 33)
Later, Viola disguises herself as a boy named Cesario and enters the service of Orsino, Duke of Illyria. Orsino asks Cesario to woo Olivia for him because Olivia is rejecting Orsino’s advances. The only problem is, Viola is in love with Orsino. To make matters more complicated, Olivia falls in love with Cesario when she meets him. Additionally, Sebastian emerges from the sea, causing more confusion when people mistake him as Cesario.
Also, as the secondary plot, Sir Toby Belch (Olivia’s uncle) encourages Sir Andrew Aguecheek to woo Olivia while plotting a method to trick Malvolio (Olivia’s vain and pompous steward).
Success of Adaptation
As mentioned before, Trevor Nunn’s formula meant he was faithful to the original plot of the play with several tweaks here and there. Nunn was even able to capture and retain the humour of the original play and even enhance it with the actions or expressions of the actors. Hence, enthusiasts of the original “Twelfth Night” play would have no reason to be upset with major changes to the plot; yet, the minor changes, such as the alteration of the times that the original play was set in, would give the film adaptation a greater appeal to a modern audience. There are also other minor changes in the film that gave it a bit of variance from the play, that, again, would not upset enthusiasts, but delight them due to the tinge of freshness it gives to the film. Some of these other minor changes include: the addition of scenes and lines, a change in the chronological order of scenes, and cuts back and forth between scenes.
An example of an addition of a scene that was not included in the play, is the scene at the beginning of the film. In this scene, Viola and Sebastian are dressed in disguises and are performing in the ship that would crash and separate them. This was an excellent addition to “Twelfth Night”, because not only does it give the audience a greater insight into the plot and the relationship between Viola and Sebastian, it also foreshadows one of the film’s main themes: appearance vs reality. Additionally, Nunn decides to dedicate a whole scene to show Viola’s transformation into Cesario. This further reinforces the film’s general theme of disguise. Moreover, when Viola ends up ship-wrecked in the land of Illyria, Nunn decides to show the audience a man watching over the scene from the edge of a cliff (Feste). Nunn also adds narration from Feste. These decisions by Nunn make Feste seem wise and aware of the events that are taking place. This is Nunn’s clever way to subtly strengthen the idea that fools are the words of wisdom in Shakespeare’s plays.
Furthermore, in the film, Orsino is introduced to the audience much later than in the play. In the original play, one of Orsino’s most well-known quotes, “If music be the food of love, play on…”, (Twelfth Night Act 1, Scene 1, Line 1) is the first line of the play; however, in the film it is only said when Orsino is introduced. This is an example of the change of chronological order from the original. The introduction of Orsino was most likely delayed so that the background of the story could be first presented to the audience. Hence, the film would be more easily understood, and it also gave it just the right amount of variance from the play to give the film that feeling of freshness.
Finally, an example of the back and forth cuts between scenes (which were independent in the play) can be seen when Feste pretends to be a priest while talking to the wrongfully imprisoned Malvolio. While this scene with Feste and Malvolio plays, another scene with Sebastian and Olivia plays in between cuts. This is a filming technique that shows the audience that these two scenes are taking place in the same time frame.
To Conclude…
Trevor Nunn’s “Twelfth Night” film has succeeded to convey the complex, and at many times, confusing, plot of Shakespeare’s play to a modern audience in a film version. He was able to eliminate much of the confusion that audiences may have encountered reading the play or watching a stage production. Additionally, Nunn’s use of cleverly inserted film techniques and additions to scenes create a unique and brilliant film recreation of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night”. It is sure to please long-time fans of “Twelfth Night” but have enough minor differences for it to feel new and original. Further, it also gives new audiences an enjoyable viewing of the film due to the same minor changes that have made the film feel more relatable and comprehensible to modern audiences.
Bibliography
Imdb. (2018). Trevor Nunn. (Online) Available at: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0638080/ (Accessed 5th of October 2018)(Website was used to find information on Trevor Nunn)