Two Gentlemen of Verona
by Shakespeare at Winedale
Apr. 29, 2016
In love, Who respects Friend? – V.iv
When two dear friends, Valentine and Proteus, both fall in love with Silvia, the bonds of friendship are subjugated to the challenges of treachery, deception, and betrayal—all within the genre of comedy! One of Shakespeare’s earliest plays, The Two Gentlemen of Verona explores the capacity of love, the resolve of friendship, and the results—sometimes farcical, sometimes frightening—of pursuing one over the other.
“I’m very excited for us to be working on two paired but contrasting plays, The Two Gentlemen of Verona and The Two Noble Kinsmen (which Shakespeare cowrote with John Fletcher),” says Dr. James Loehlin, Shakespeare of Winedale Director and Regents Professor of English. “There’s a case to be made that these are actually Shakespeare’s first and last plays. They both deal with an important theme in Shakespeare’s work, the conflict between friendship and love. We will be looking at that theme in class through several of Shakespeare’s plays.” Loehlin points out that each play also has its own distinctive features:
"Two Gents shows Shakespeare trying out a lot of the devices he would later use in his mature comedies: the cross-dressed heroine, the movement into the ‘green world,’ the comic servant subplot. It also has something he never did again: a dog onstage. Two Noble Kinsmen is interesting as an adaptation of Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale; it also re-explores some of the territory Shakespeare covered in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with Theseus and Hippolyta overseeing the action, and the villagers putting on a performance for them. It also features a wonderful female character, the Jailer’s Daughter, who is perhaps Fletcher’s homage to Ophelia. This will be the first time this play has been done at Winedale, so I am very excited about that."
Shakespeare at Winedale is a program within the University of Texas English Department that invites students from all disciplines to learn about Shakespeare through the experience of performing his works. Since 1970, hundreds of students have performed Shakespeare’s immortal words in the Winedale Theatre Barn, using textual interpretation, creativity, and passion to bring the plays to life. The students of the Spring Class come together to explore several plays throughout the UT spring semester. The course includes three weekends at the Winedale Historical Center, where students immerse themselves in the study of Shakespeare surrounded by the beauty of the Texas countryside. Their coursework culminates in a final presentation of their studies: two performances in the Winedale Theatre Barn.
[image: wwwfeedbooks.com]
Two Gentlemen of Verona
by William Shakespeare
Shakespeare at Winedale
The Shakespeare at Winedale Spring Class performs Shakespeare’s The Two Gentlemen of Verona at the Winedale Theatre Barn on April 29 at 7 PM, the culmination of a semester of coursework focusing on ‘Love and Friendship in Shakespeare.’
Tickets are $10; $5 for UT ID-holders and students.
Tickets are available at www.shakespeare-winedale.org or by calling (512) 471-4726.
