Maria

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In the Globe Theatre Company's production of Twelfth Night, Maria was played by Paul Chahidi.

About Paul Chahidi

This is Paul's fourth season at Shakespeare's Globe. Last year, he played the Porter/Seyton in Macbeth, and has previously appeared here in The Comedy of Errors, The Two Noble Kinsmen and Augustine's Oak. He played Maria in the Globe Theatre Company's production of Twelfth Night at Middle Temple Hall in Spring 2002. Paul has also worked with the RSC, the Oxford Stage Company and the Young Vic Theatre Company. Film and TV work includes the role of Gavin in Notting Hill, Murder Most Horrid and Peak Practice.

Click on the numbered links to follow Paul's journey as he creates and plays the character of Maria in the Globe Theatre.

Paul Chahidi - Character Notes 1

These comments are the actor's thoughts or ideas about the part as s/he goes through the rehearsal process – they are simply his/her own interpretations and frequently change as the rehearsal process progresses.
Although I played Maria when the Globe Theatre Company performed this Twelfth Night at Middle Temple Hall, the production now feels totally different. This is partly because out of a cast of 13, only 5 actors remain from the original company. Apart from Mark [Rylance] who plays Olivia, all of the actors in my scenes are new. That means that part of my job now we’re in rehearsal is to forget about what we did in January, be open to what the other actors suggest about the scenes and re-discover the characters with them. That's not to say that I should throw away all I learnt then about playing Maria – much of it was very good and I am enjoying exploring it further, but at the same time it is fascinating to approach the character a different way.

It's important to understand Maria's status. She is often played as a serving-woman, a wench, but in fact she is referred to as a "gentlewoman" and a "chambermaid". She might not have much money, but she is Olivia's lady in waiting and therefore must be a member of the gentry. At the moment, we’re exploring the scenario that both her parents are deceased, and because she had very little money (even though her father was a knight), Olivia's family took her under her wing.

This production is exploring the play whilst staying as true to the Elizabethan period as possible, and the characters each belong to a clearly defined level of society. Status was very important in that time; for example, if anyone other than a member of the nobility wore expensive (often gold or purple) clothes in public, they would be beaten and possibly put in prison. These social levels are the starting point for my characterisation of Maria. For instance, Malvolio's threats do not scare her because they are social equals. She is rude to him because she sees him as a joyless Puritan who has a draining influence on Olivia and her household.

The other day, we had a visit by the Tudor Group, which was fantastic. There seems to be two strands to their work: one is to research Tudor life and how people lived from day to day, and the other is to actually try it out using recreated clothing and household items. Because this production is an original practices production, the cast have to learn the formal manners and behaviour of the time which are very important for the world of the play. This world is controlled, or at least defined, by a strong social structure that starts to weaken as the play unfolds and the characters begin to reveal their true selves. As they become increasingly ruled by their emotions and desires, they begin to flaunt social conventions, but we, the actors, need to know what the proper conventions were before we can do this! For example, a woman was only meant to remove her hat and reveal her hair in the company of her husband, so to remove my hat is quite a sexy gesture and would add a certain quality to a scene.

Tim [Carroll, Master of Play] is away at the moment, but he’ll be back very soon. In the meantime, Mark [Rylance, Olivia and the Artistic Director] is taking rehearsals. At the moment, we have just finished doing basic character work. Each member of the cast made three lists of lines from the play: lists of what our character says about themselves, what our character says about other characters, and what they say about us. Mark is encouraging us to make discoveries for ourselves, and we all discuss each character in turn, throwing ideas back and forth. We are all working together to help each other make discoveries about our characters.

Activities

Paul mentions the importance of status to the characters in Twelfth Night

What is status? How do we know, in general, which level of society people belong to? Paul mentions that he thinks Maria is a gentlewoman, a member of the gentry. Do you agree, and which parts of the text support your argument?

Status affects the relationships between the characters in Twelfth Night. How would status affect Maria's relationship with a) Olivia, b) Malvolio, c) Feste, and how could Paul illustrate this in his performance? Send your suggestions to Paul.

Status also affects our daily lives

Can you think of a situation in which you might have to respond to people of different status? For example, when different people tell you to do something such as turn your music down. How would you respond to this request from a) an adult in your household, b) an older brother/sister c) a younger brother/sister d) a stranger. Improvise scenes based on these situations.

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Paul Chahidi - Character Notes 2

These comments are the actor's thoughts or ideas about the part as s/he goes through the rehearsal process – they are simply his/her own interpretations and frequently change as the rehearsal process progresses.
It's all started to get much bigger recently. Up until now, the rehearsals having been taking place in the attic, (the space above the Globe stage), or in the small rehearsal hall, and I’ve been very conscious of the fact that so far I’ve been keeping it small, concentrating on little details and not worrying about my performance as a whole. All of a sudden, I’m very aware of the demands of playing in the Globe space in front of a Globe audience. Having said that, it's important to work on the detail first; it would be an undue pressure on all the actors for them to think that they had to give a performance from the very first rehearsal. This initial work, grounding the scenes in the characters’ emotions and intentions, will allow us to expand the scenes in the Globe space later on without feeling that we’ve become untruthful to the text.. I would like to keep working through the play in this detailed way, but at the same time, I keep thinking that so much detailed work won’t come across to an audience in the Globe space. It's very hard; I’m trying to find the diagonals and expand what we’ve been doing to fit the space more fully, but at the same time, I mustn’t let the rehearsal process be dominated by such concerns.

As I mentioned, we have been working on specific scenes in detail, and at the moment we are concentrating on the box tree scene (Act ii, scene 5). This scene is a real challenge. Firstly, the text itself is tricky; at one point, Malvolio has a monologue, but it's not that straightforward as his speech is punctuated by other characters’ interjections which, of course, Malvolio can’t hear. It takes a lot of rehearsal to ensure that the audience won’t get lost! The best way to do this is to start small, working in detail on the characters’ emotions, intentions and actions, and then to make the scene, and our performances, gradually larger and more expansive.

Maria is the driving force behind the letter trick, although she backs off towards the end. I’ve always thought she needs to humiliate Malvolio, because he's always blaming her for everything, whether it's Sir Toby's party getting too noisy, or anything else that he doesn’t approve of. As she's explaining her plan to the others, her intention is very clear; she says they must pursue him now, or else they’ll lose the opportunity. It's only when Sir Toby suggests that they put Malvolio in a dark room and torture him that she doesn’t encourage them. Perhaps she feels that the mock exorcism is one step too far. Still, Maria is very proud of her plan to humiliate the steward, which is almost to be expected, considering it is her pride that Malvolio has been continually attacking. She has a very good understanding of people, and knows exactly what she needs to do to reel Malvolio in: she doesn’t make the letter too obviously loving; rather, she says the right things to capture Malvolio's imagination. Although she's good with other people, she never talks about her own feelings; she isn’t an introspective character in the same way that Orsino is. As an actor, it's my responsibility to flesh out the character and still remain true to the text. I think she is immensely fond of Sir Toby, and over the course of the play they gradually fall for each other. Both of them have a great deal of wit, teasing each other as well as Sir Andrew, and when we hear of their marriage at the end of the play, it's a nice ending as far as they’re concerned.

My costume has changed slightly since Middle Temple Hall. Then, my petticoat was orange, and it clashed with the dress. Now, I have a brand new grey one, which is much better. I think I’m also going to have a nightgown, which I’ll wear in Act ii Scene 3 when Maria comes in to tell Sir Toby and the others to be quiet. I have to admit, at this point, I’m not looking forward to getting ready for the first performance. When I come in before each performance, first, I have to shave very close, (and not cut myself), before putting all sorts of moisturisers on my face: it's all very girly. There is a reason for this; the makeup we’re using is similar to that used 400 years ago, and it sucks all the moisture out of your face. If you don’t put moisturiser on both before and after a performance, you wake up the next morning with scaly dry skin. It's not fun. Then after that, there's the corset, and then the costume itself. It's going to take a while…

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