5.4

With the prospect of rehearsing the second half of the show today, I am reminded of the fact that the end of 5.4 still feels awkward for me. Fortunately the wonder weasels will be devoting an hour to it in our out of class rehearsal tomorrow. However, I do not want to miss the opportunity to note my concerns before we go in with Colleen.

I like A.J.s idea that Proteus is still lying at the end- not because I want to make him the bad guy, but because I find it very difficult to turn on a dime as Sylvia in order to immediately reconcile with him. I think Valentine is trying to force the reconciliation the same way he is trying to reconcile two parts of his psyche that are at war with each other. Sylvia knows that Proteus is a knave (pronounced ka-nAv), and has been hissing at him since he arrived in Milan. She probably has her own insecurities and suspicions about his emotional hold over Valentine, but she does have proof of his treacherous nature from Sebastian's accounts of Julia, and the fact that Proteus tries to woo her once Valentine is out of Milan. Valentine, meanwhile, is not aware of the fact that Proteus reported his elopement to the Duke, and only has the example of an attempted rape to Sylvia to show that Proteus is a jerk - apparently attempted rape isn't going to ruin a solid friendship here. Maybe Valentine is the one going through post traumatic shock and trying to pretend that everything is ok. Regardless of which, I still need to reconcile the turn from shock to happy ending.

I don't believe that Sylvia will voluntarily offer her hand to Proteus at the end. I think it makes more sense that Valentine is trying to guide her hand and give it to Proteus trying to tie it to the previous scene. I think that Sylvia may be ready to accept the happy ending, simply because her whole experience in the woods has been f#@%ed up, and she's trying to find some normalcy. But I don't think that she is particularly happy or ready to communicate with the rest of the group onstage because she doesn't say anything for the remainder of the play. If she did it might echo Kevin Smith's Chasing Amy where Alyssa responds to Holden's proposal of a menage a trois with "I love you Holden, but I'm not your whore," and then she'd leave the stage, find the delinquent Eglamour, beat him up, steal his clothes, abscond to Firenze, and throw her lot in with the Medici.