Twelfth Night Episode 3 - "What Country, Friends, Is This?" Scene 4

3 DAYS EARLIER...

Much further to the north, along the beach, Antonio Bordega, legendary pirate, strolls along the coast. He is alone. He spends much of his time alone these days, having retired from his piracy the year previously. No one really knew that. In fact, when he had given up his pirating ways, he had sold his ship and supplies to his first mate, who had been given permission to continue the legend of Antonio Bordega. And so, for many, nothing had changed. The pirate ship The Black Heart still plied the waters, plundered gold, harrassed merchants, and, generally, was a royal pirate pain to everyone and anyone. However, for Antonio, everything had changed. He now finds himself lost often in his own thoughts, wondering what he should do next. He is content to have ended his piracy, but now his life seems unfulfilled and without purpose. Something has to come and fill that void. While it would be foolish to say that he has regrets about his past - his stockpile of gold, riches, and a grim satisfaction in his reputation would say otherwise - he contemplates if there is something good he can now do with his life, give it some balance.

As he contemplates, he gazes out across the vastness of the sea. Every once in a while, he spots a ship and he fancies it The Black Heart. He watches as the remnants of a vast storm surge away to the north. His eye catches on a piece of floating ship wreckage - not all that uncommon, especially this time of year. Yet his eye lingers on it. Something is not quite right about it, something...there it is, movement! There is  person tied to the wreckage.

Antonio races down the cliffs to the beach, where he plunges into the water, stroking towards the wreckage. Grabbing hold, he steers the flotsam and its passenger out of the sea current, where it would have been drawn yet further north, into colder and less habitable water, and up onto the beach. The person in the wreckage groans. He is alive! Maybe barely, but alive! How long has he been tied to this wreckage! Antonio draws his knife and cuts through the cord securing the man to the wreckage.

The man shakily sits up and peers at Antonio through salt encrusted eyes. His eyes drop to the knife in Antonio's hand and the sword he carries at his hip. Antonio casually puts the knife back in his belt. "Do you have a name?"

The man - for it truly is Sebastian, not lost at sea as Shaw and Viola presume - hesitates, as if weighing the odds of something in his head, then responds, "Roderigo." The name sounds false and thick on the man's tongue, but Antonio doesn't press the matter.

"Alright, Roderigo, come with me. I have a place not far from here where we can rest you up and get you some food. You look like you could use it..."

THREE DAYS PASS (NOW THE SAME DAY AS THE EVENTS OF SCENE 3)

Now choose 1 of the 3 options below to complete our production of Episode 3 of Twelfth Night. For each additional option that you complete, I will give you +.5 E.C. (so +1 EC available today). Make sure to complete them fully to the end and answer any question(s) found there. If you are doing them as EC, you only need to answer the question(s) on the first video you watch. On the other ones (the extra credit), you can just type EC as the answer.

• Option #1 - Modern Text Version: Click here
• Option #2 - Stage Performance Set in Modern Day: Click here
• Option #3 - Summary/Analysis: Click here

The curtain now closes on the third episode of our tale. The tension begins to mount as we now know things that the characters don't. Each of the twins thinks the other is dead. The one (Viola) is dressed to look like Sebastian as her disguise...what could possibly go wrong? Stay tuned next week for Episode 4, where we will be whisked off to the grand court of the Lady Olivia, catch a glimpse at life "downstairs" with the servants, and see what happens when Viola/Cesario brings Olivia the Duke Orsino's message of love.