Stage Season 2023-2024
Fall 2023

Twelfth Night
by William Shakespeare
Directed by Alice Reagan
October 19-22
Director’s Statement
I believe it’s important for us, as a Theatre department at a liberal arts institution, to engage periodically with the work of Shakespeare. He is an influential, provocative, beautiful writer in the landscape of dramatic writing. There’s always more to learn from this artist. I’m obsessed and troubled by Twelfth Night, and think it’s the right play for Barnard and Columbia, now. We need its healing power, and also its spikiness, for courage. We are still very much in recovery from the pandemic, and far from recovery in terms of political/social battles around abortion, trans rights, a contested election. When it comes to weather and climate catastrophes, the rain it raineth every day.
The ensemble of Twelfth Night is a ship of fools. It’s a play in which everyone behaves badly and is a little bit mad. The play begins in grief, loss, and confusion and moves towards reunion and wholeness. However, for Shakespeare and for us, wholeness might not mean perfection or being perfectly happy in love. I believe grief and loss are not experiences to run away from, but are feelings we would do well to weave into our daily lives—they are always present, in some way. We are constantly changing, learning, growing, and leaving behind, even as we cling to the familiar. Shakespeare wants to shake us loose, turn us upside down, have us live in reality, not fantasy. Twelfth Night is a moment of topsy-turvy revelry but Shakespeare has his eye on the clear light of tomorrow morning, when we may not be at our best, but we’ll be ourselves.

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