A wonderful comedy – after watching Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

Text/Ma Jiajun

The Beijing Film Actors Troupe's shakespeare masterpiece "Twelfth Night" in Xi'an is a wonderful comedy.

The Twelfth Night is one of Shakespeare's early realist comedies, and it prominently reflects the renaissance-era religious ideas against hypocrisy and the humanistic ideas of feudalism. The performance reflects the early artistic style of this great playwright and poet. The beautiful images on the stage, the vivid plot, the concise scenery, the exquisite dialogue, the optimistic atmosphere, and the pleasant soundtrack all left a deep and unforgettable impression on us.

What is more commendable is the organic unity in the performance, and many factors constitute a complete artistic creation in the progress of the plot. Engels once exalted "the vividness and richness of a Shakespearean plot" (1). The performance of "Twelfth Night" harmoniously intertwines the clues of romantic love, bizarre plot and spicy irony.

In the clues of love, "Twelfth Night" cleverly arranges the adventures of The Brothers and Sisters of Shabhushin and Viola. Viola's image reproduces the social demands of the early Renaissance: the ideals of equality between men and women and freedom of love. The development of the whole plot is inseparable from her female costume as a man. And this bold and uninhibited behavior in the eyes of feudalism is her attempt to pursue social life, which is a manifestation of dissatisfaction with the status of women. Viola becomes a closest to Bansisario, and is entangled in love, on the one hand she is pursued by Miss Olivia, and on the other hand, she falls into a crush on the Duke of Ossino. The actor successfully shows the characteristics of this woman who is a man in appearance and a man who is a woman in inner love, and vividly expresses her inner secrets and contradictions, as well as external actions and expressions, creating a noble image of self-sacrifice that pursues both love happiness and suppresses inner fire. Her pursuits and her pursuits result in a series of dramatic scenes: her solemnity and gaffes in front of the Duke, the embarrassment at Olivia's side, the embarrassment in dealing with the duels of "love enemies", all of which are funny. As for Viola's makeup change, it also caused a lot of interesting misunderstandings, but it unexpectedly brought happiness to her brother. Of course, it also freed himself from his dilemma, and finally made himself achieve the purpose of love. The two pairs of lovers got their wish, which is the natural ending after several twists and turns. In between, the power of Shakespeare's artistic conception is expressed.

The wittyness of pleasure, the parody of banter and the wit of humor are also incorporated by Shakespeare into the vast artistic structure of Twelfth Night. We warmly applaud the comedic atmosphere on stage. Sir Taubai's roughness and frankness, Mary's cunning and funny, and the cowardice of the house are all inseparable parts of Twelfth Night. Through the accurate portrayal of these figurative personalities, the script reveals the social life and fashion of Britain at the turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Fun-seeking, binge drinking, carefree life in jokes... This wandering skeleton is a counterattack to the puritanical precepts of the Puritan world in Shakespeare's day. Shakespeare does not glorify bourgeois habits and bourgeois style, but points out that people's pranks are only to punish the representatives of the old consciousness and to fool themselves with stupidity, which does not yet include the fraud and plundering of extreme egoism and evil intentions, but the pleasure of timely pleasure and the cunning and cleverness of themselves. This is powerfully demonstrated in scenes such as pouring alcohol, writing false letters, setting traps, and instigating duels. As for the image of the clown Fancet, it has a deeper meaning in "Twelfth Night". From the character of this quick-witted fool, Shakespeare shows another nature of the funny, that is, optimistically making the right affirmation of life, and making rational judgments about life. The language of the Joker is of an aphoristic nature, and his wit is filled with the humor and joy of the people. The satirical image of Ma Fu Liu shows another nature of comedy. In this hypocritical, arrogant and despicable comedic character, a hypocritical Puritan is exposed. Shakespeare lashed out at this image. The comedic nature of this character is not only manifested in the contradiction between his thoughts and actions and the actual course of life, but also in his fact that he does not think that he is ridiculous. The spirit is extremely stubborn and stupid, but he imagines himself as a favored lover, and he is hypocritical and contrived and thinks that he is the object of "the nobility of heaven", and this form is greater than the content of the abrupt contradiction, which is enough to become the infinite ridiculousness of the ma fu willow. It is these factors of different nature and different tastes above that are intertwined into the vivid comedy plot of "Twelfth Night". Their organic fusion guides us to fall into romantic reverie as the scene progresses, sometimes recognizes the wonders of life, sometimes laughs, sometimes boils with passion, sometimes smiles and admires the wit of incisive language, and sometimes joyfully appreciates beautiful poetry. And all this thanks to the hard work and exquisite artistic creation of the comrades of the troupe.

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(1) Marx and Engels on Art, Vol. 1, People's Literature Publishing House, Beijing, 1960, p. 37.

(Published in Xi'an Evening News on December 27, 1961)

(Note: The author of this article has authorized this headline)

(Ma Jiajun, a native of Qingyuan, Hebei, born on October 5, 1929, is currently a professor at the College of Literature of Shaanxi Normal University, a member of the Chinese Writers Association, a member of the Chinese Dramatists Association, a member of the Chinese Filmmakers Association, an honorary president (former president) of the Shaanxi Foreign Literature Society, a principle of the Chinese Foreign Literature Society, a principle of the Chinese Russian Literature Research Society, a former president of the Shaanxi Provincial Higher Education Drama Research Society, a former consultant of the Shaanxi Poetry Society, and a former executive director of the Shaanxi Provincial Federation of Social Science Societies. Shaanxi Province to build socialist spiritual civilization advanced individuals, Shaanxi Province to teach and educate advanced teachers, etc., enjoy special allowances from the State Council.

He is the author of 12 kinds of "Nineteenth Century Russian Literature", "The New Stage of Aesthetic History", "Poetry Exploration", "Exploration of World Literature", etc.; 4 kinds of "The Essence of World Literature" and "History of Western Drama" co-authored with his daughter Ma Xiaoyi; 9 kinds of "History of World Literature" (3 volumes) and "Research on Gorky's Creation"; edited 4 kinds of "30 Lectures on European and American Modernist Literature"; co-edited and co-authored "100 Topics of Marxism-Leninism", "Cultural Research Methods", "50 Lectures on Oriental Literature", "Western Literature in the Twentieth Century", etc. and more than 40 kinds.

It has been listed in more than 40 kinds, such as the Dictionary of Chinese Writers, the Dictionary of Chinese Poets, the Dictionary of Chinese Social Science Scholars, the Cambridge Dictionary of International Biographies (27th Edition in English), the Directory of Experts in Russian Studies Abroad (Russian Edition) of the Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Classics of Shaanxi Century of Literature and Art. ）