Theatre is a genre that you read when you feel like it. So it is with pleasure that I find a genre that I like to read, a classic; what is more, the Shakespearean theatre shows a model in the genre.
Here, the scenes engage the themes of cross-dressing, misunderstandings, revenge, and cunning—and love, of course. Who always wants to be complex and convoluted with this master?
The characters are archetypes but also conceal the richness of the game. As often, we particularly savor the flights of the madman, imprinted with many truths so that everything ends well.
It is a play that can scan, a story with twists that lend itself to smiles and emotion.

“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.”

This was fun. The thing is that comedies are always more fun on a stage. Ultimately, so are tragedies.
Shakespeare created a hilarious story of love, confusion and foolishness. There is a lot of genderbending and cross-dressing and homosexualitating (yes, I know that is not a word). Quite a queer tale. And in the end, everything and everybody is set straight and does not marry below their own station. A bit of a let-down if you ask me. Especially because this is not exactly how I imagine true love to be, but oh my, sometimes we can lean back and simply enjoy ourselves.

I must admit that I liked A Midsummer Night's Dream better. However, I'm biased since I was part of a production of this play. I also like Richard II better, because I knew more about its cultural context and enjoyed the relationship between Shakespeare's Richard and the actual living and breathing and long dead king.

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The treatment of Malvolio is a little too cruel, Belch and Aguecheek are a little too coarse, and the resolution is a little too abrupt, and so this excellent Shakespearean comedy falls a little short of perfection.

Still, the poetry about music and the songs themselves are wonderful, Viola and Orsino are charming, and Feste is the wisest and best of clowns.

Twins: Freaky or Fun?
Twelfth Night is Shakespeare's answer to that age-old question.



While I was listening to this, I had no idea that Viola & Sebastian were twins. As far as I knew, they were just siblings. But, apparently, they were (<--if I had read the blurb, I would have known this).
And apparently, it was also easy to pass as a man 400 years ago!
I guess if Gwen could do it (and still find time to write her ever-practical GOOP blog), then I could too!



This is useful to know, in case I ever get that time machine in the basement working and then decide to travel back to the 1600s to trick another woman into falling in love with me.
Otherwise, not quite as useful.



Anyway. So what was this one about?
Warning: Spoilers
But, realistically, I probably didn't understand what actually happened in the play anyway, so everything in this review is more than likely wrong.
Warning: Incorrect Spoilers

Ok, Viola & Sebastian went on a Carnival Cruise Vacation.
It ended badly. As they typically do...



Viola washes up on the shore of Illyria, thinking that her dear brother is lost at sea, and decides she needs to find a man!



She makes a deal with a Sea Witch
disguised to look like the captain of the vessel that rescued her!


, who turns her into a man, so she can infiltrate Prince Eric's Duke Orsino's household.
She has 3 days to snag a kiss, or the spell will be broken!
If that happens, the Sea Witch will plant her soul with all the rest of the poor bastards who made shitty impulsive deals!
Kids, it's never a good idea to strike a bargain with someone who has the word WITCH prominently displayed in their name. Just sayin'.



Right from the start, there are complications with Viola's plan. First off, the Duke is in love with someone else. HUGE problem. HUGE.
Secondly, he wants her (now known as Cesario) to woo his lady-love for him. Yeah! Can you believe that shit?
Hey, Olivia. Um, Orsino wants to know if you like him, or if you like him-like him?
Unfortunately, girls don't like it when you send a representative.
Grab your nuts and ask her out.



But in Orsino's defense, Olivia had rebuffed his previous advances.
A lot.



Now, Olivia is very intelligent, because she knows Orsino can't possibly really love her - due to the fact that he doesn't know her very well.
And at the same time, she's incredibly unintelligent, because she not only falls in love with Cesario after 5 minutes, but also fails to notice that the Dude Looks Like A Lady, and throws herself most unwelcomely at poor Viola.



Meanwhile, there is a whole 'nother story happening with Olivia's Uncle Toby & his drinking buddy, Andrew (<--who also likes Olivia!).
These two get together with Olivia's maid (and maybe someone else?) and decide to play a trick on a self-righteous guy named Malvolio, for calling them out on being obnoxious drunks.
At least it was a harmless and tasteful prank. They just made Olivia (<--Malvalio also likes her!) think he might possibly be demon-possessed, and then threw him in a dark room and tormented him for days.



Back to the love triangle!
Cuz here's where things get weird. Remember how Viola's brother died? Surprise, he's alive! And in Illyria! And with the captain who saved him! Naturally, he thinks his sister drowned <--because it's hard to swim in a dress!
So sad.



But while he's out mourning, he runs into...wait for it...OLIVIA!
And because her love runs so deep, she immediately mistakes him for his sister-in-drag and corners him to profess her undying love. She must be one hot piece of ass, because a few stolen moments with her, and Sebastian is head over heels in love. Then she proposes to him.
Whoo-hoo! Feminism!
Hundreds of years later, and we're almost there, ladies!



Olivia (savvy lady that she is) seems to have kept a priest on standby just for this sort of occasion because 15 minutes later those two are saying their vows.



Don't worry, I'm sure they are going to be very happy.
Let's check in on Malvolio, shall we?



Well, he seems fine!
{insert more shenanigans here}
Duke Orsino finds out that Olivia is in love with Cesario, and starts hauling him away to be killed. Viola/Cesario accepts her fate because she loves Orsino so much that she would rather DIE than cause him pain.
If it were me, I'd vote for pain. Sorry, Orsino.
Olivia, desperate to save her man, calls in the priest to attest that they are married. Which just confuses the hell out of Viola.
But not for long!
Because good old Uncle Toby comes running in with a story about getting his ass kicked by Cesario, followed quickly by the Imitation Cesario (aka Sebastian).
At which point, everyone realizes that there are TWO Cesarios in the house.
Damn! Shit just got real!



It only takes several minutes of ridiculous questions for each of the (painfully stupid) Wonder Twins to realize that their sibling isn't dead.
Your father had a mole?
*gasp*
My father had a mole!



I know what you're thinking...
How does Viola keep from becoming fertilizer in the Sea Witch's garden of shriveled souls?
Good question, random person!
It turns out, once Orsino realizes that A) Olivia is off the market and B) Cesario is a girl, he immediately transfers his undying love to her.
Boom! Done! Happy Endings for everyone!
Including Olivia's maid (and Punk'd accomplice), Maria, who gets married to the drunken prize, Toby.



Oh, and don't worry about Malvolio. They eventually let him out. I mean, yeah, he's pretty much scarred for life and wanders away swearing to have his revenge, but I'm sure he'll get over it.



It's a little-known fact that Twelfth Night wasn't Shakespeare's first choice for the name of this play. Originally, it was going to be called, How Stupid Can You Be? <--Read it on the internet. Must be true.
Ok, maybe not. Regardless, this was a fun story, and I quite enjoyed it.

I listened to this one on a Playaway device, and I got to hear a full cast of characters, sound effects, and music. Definitely the way to go!

Score one for androgyny and desire.
Twelfth Night is like if She’s The Man with Amanda Bynes started off with a shipwreck and instead of being a soccer captain named Duke, Channing Tatum was an actual damn Duke. Just kidding, of course the film is a modern retelling of the Big Bad Bard’s romantic comedy. For the uninitiated, it is the story of siblings Sebastian and Viola who are separated by a storm. Viola disguises herself as a page boy in the service Duke Orsino, who is in love with Olivia, but Viola loves Orsino and Olivia loves Casario except Casario is actually Viola. Pretty simple right? Now throw in some comical subplots about making Malvolio believe she too is in love with Orsino and we got a proper sexy story and, ‘If music be the food of love, play on,’ lets proceed onward!

‘Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?’

Bring on the cakes and don’t spare the ales because this is a pretty riotous play that plays with the concept of gender as much as it plays with the concept of disguises and the roles we play. Shakespeare uses the act of disguising oneself for multiple purposes here, with Viola in disguise as Casario and others in disguise as scholars to trick Malvolio, and while the latter is more an act of deception, Viola serves as a pretty excellent look that, particularly to a modern audience, can be an interesting look at gender fluidity and queer desires. Vita Sackville-West, who would dress in men’s clothing and go by the name Julian in order to escort her lover, Violet, around Paris and is often remembered for her relationship with Virginia Woolf, named the protagonists of her novel The Edwardians Sebastian and Viola after this play for that very reason.

‘If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction.”

The act of taking on a disguise, however, also functions on several layers, from acknowledging ones self in the form of a role all the way to a rather metafictional level acknowledging that these are in fact characters in a play. Viola, for instance, when asked if she is a comedian responds ‘I am not that I play,’ as a sort of witty nod to her role as Casario. The idea of Viola taking on the role of a man can also be thought of as subversive to the notion that roles of women characters were commonly filled by men and thus Viola playing a man is comical as it nudges the idea of a man playing a woman who is then playing a man. Which is pretty great. We also have Shakespeare showing us characters who are even unwittingly playing a role, such as Orsino’s lofty language of love being viewed as fairly farcical–Orsino is in love with the idea of loving Olivia more than actually in love with Olivia and playing a role of lover rather than being an “authentic” lover. As often with Shakespeare there is a “play-within-a-play” and whole one isn’t necessarily stated as such we can view Fabian, Sir Toby and Sir Andrew as a sort of audience to the “performance” of Malvolio. Neat!

‘Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.’

A romcom of gender bending and love triangles as only Shakespeare could deliver, Twelfth Night is a total delight.

Twelfth Night; or, What You Will, William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night, or What You Will is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written around 1601–02 as a Twelfth Night's entertainment for the close of the Christmas season.

The play centers on the twins Viola and Sebastian, who are separated in a shipwreck. Viola (who is disguised as Cesario) falls in love with Duke Orsino, who in turn is in love with the Countess Olivia. Upon meeting Viola, Countess Olivia falls in love with her thinking she is a man.

The play expanded on the musical interludes and riotous disorder expected of the occasion, with plot elements drawn from the short story "Of Apollonius and Silla" by Barnabe Rich, based on a story by Matteo Bandello.

The first recorded performance was on 2 February 1602, at Candlemas, the formal end of Christmastide in the year's calendar. The play was not published until its inclusion in the 1623 First Folio.

تاریخ نخستین خوانش: دوازدهم ماه ژانویه سال 1989میلادی

عنوان: ن‍م‍ای‍ش‍ن‍ام‍ه‌ خ‍ن‍ده ‌آور ش‍ب‌ دوازده‍م،‌ ی‍ا «ه‍ر چ‍ه‌ ب‍خ‍واه‍ی»"؛ اث‍ر وی‍ل‍ی‍ام‌ ش‍ک‍س‍پ‍ی‍ر؛ مت‍رج‍م‌ ع‍لاء ال‍دی‍ن‌ پ‍ازارگ‍ادی‌؛ ت‍ه‍ران : بنگاه ترجمه و نشر کتاب‏‫، سال1354؛ در 189ص؛ موضوع نمایشنامه های نویسندگان بریتانیا - سده 17م

عنوان: شب دوازدهم یا آنچه شما بخواهید؛ اثر ویلیام شکسپیر؛ مترجم افضل وثوقی؛ تهران، رادیو تلویزیون ملی ایران، 1354، در 110ص؛

عنوان: شب دوازدهم نمایشنامه؛ اثر ویلیام شکسپیر؛ مترجم حمید الیاسی؛ تهران، روشنگران، 1368، در 197ص؛ چاپ دیگر 1390، در 238ص، شابک9789646751521؛

عنوان: شب دوازدهم نمایشنامه؛ اثر ویلیام شکسپیر؛ مترجم رحیم اصلانی؛ تبریز، گهواره؛ 1397؛ در 64ص؛ شابک9786229972588؛

عنوان: شب دوازدهم؛ ویلیام شکسپیر؛ مترجم میلاد میناکار؛ تهران: بنگاه ترجمه و نشر کتاب پارسه، ‏‫1398؛ در 190ص؛ شابک9786002533708؛

عنوان: شب دوازدهم شکسپیر؛ بازنگاری اندرو متیوز؛ تصویرگر تونی راس؛ مترجم بیژن اوشیدری؛ تهران: نشر مرکز، کتاب مریم، ‏‫1393؛ شابک9789642131648؛

این نمایش، در پنج پرده، تدوین شده؛ و دارای چهارده شخصیت؛ و تعدادی سیاهی لشکر است؛ شخصیت‌های اصلی نمایش عبارتند از «اورسینو، دوک احساساتی ایلیریا، انسانی نیک»؛ «اولیویا، کنتسی ثروتمند، همسایه اورسینو، در نهایت زیبایی»؛ «ویولا، قاصد اورسینو؛ مخفی در لباس پسران و با نام واقعی سزاریو (هرگز عشق را به زبان نمی‌آورد…؛)»؛ «سباستین، برادر دوقلوی ویولا»؛ «سر توبی بلچ، دایی اولیویا که در خانه او لنگر انداخته»؛ «ماریا، ندیمه اولیویا، یک سوسک کوچولو ولی زنده دل»؛ «سر آندرو اگوچیک، شوالیه‌ ای احمق»؛ «فست، دلقک اجازه سر خود اولیویا»؛ «مال ولیو»؛ «فابیان»؛ «آنتونیو»؛ «یک کاپیتان»؛ «والنتین»؛ «کوریو»؛ «لردها»، «یک کشیش»، «افسران»، «ملاحان»، «نوازندگان» و «خدمتکاران»؛

شخصیت «صوفی» در این نمایش‌نامه، به «شاه عباس صفوی» اشاره دارد؛ محل رخداد رویدادهای نمایش��امه «شهری در ایلیریا (کشوری باستانی در ساحل دریای آدریاتیک) و اسکله مجاور آن»؛

چکیده نمایشنامه: «اورسینیو» دوک محبوب «ایلیریا»، از فرط سیری، و پول و جاه، با بازی کردن نقش افتادن در دام عشق؛ دل بیمار و روح احساساتی خود را، تا سرحد حالت جذبه و نشوه، برانگیخته‌ است؛ معشوقه ی او البته کسی جز «کنتس اولیویای» زیبای شهر نیست، که قصری در همسایگی کاخ «دوک» دارد؛ «اورسینو» به منظور ابراز عشق، و شروع خواستگاری، پیام و هدیه‌ ای، توسط قاصد جدید خود، «سزاریو»ی جوان، برای «کنتس» می‌فرستد؛ اما نمی‌داند «سزاریو»، که به تازگی، به خدمت او درآمده، در واقع دختری، در لباس پسران است، با نام واقعی «ویولا»؛ او از روزهای اول دیدن «دوک»، عاشق «دوک» شده، و اکنون، بیش از همیشه، غمزده‌ است؛ در سوی دیگر «کنتس اولیویا» نیز، در قصر خود، همانند «دوک» احساساتی برانگیخته دارد، ولی آکنده از اندوه و تاسف است؛ «کنتس» زیبا، به تازگی تنها برادر عزیزش را، از دست داده، و از پذیرفتن، و ابراز عشق، و حتی همدمی با هر مردی، خودداری می‌کند؛ اما اینهمه باعث نمی‌شود، که در نخستین دیدار، با قاصد «دوک (ویولا در لباس مبدل)» به دریای عشق پرتلاطم او نیفتد…؛

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 21/11/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 06/07/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

I really didn’t expect to like this. Most comedy is wasted on me, but Shakespearean comedy is just so damn funny. Reading this play is only half the picture. I think this is a play that really must be seen in performance as well. I watched a DvD version of the recent globe production and I was practically rolling on my living room floor with laughter. It had an all-male cast, which just made it even better. Mark Rylance as Olivia was just pure comic genius, and Stephen Fry as Malvolio was just awkward and hilarious. It was simply amazing.

  

  

The scene with the yellow stockings was just perfect. Malvolio is in love with Olivia, and as a joke several knights play a trick on him. Olivia detests the colour yellow, so they tell him she loves it and that it makes her weak at the knees. As a consequence, Malvolio gets himself a nice big pair of yellow stocking and brandishes them in her presence. She is disgusted with them, and him; she then tells him to go to bed, which he misinterprets as “let’s go to bed together.” So, he tries his luck and ends up in a rather amusing looking prison cell. That’s only one small aspect of the plot, but arguably one of the funniest. I couldn’t think of a better Malvolio that Stephen Fry; he came across as pedantic, arrogant and horny. It’s a rather funny combination.




Love is a fickly and awkward thing. It is often won by accident and happenchance. All sought after love in this is denied, and all accidental love is pursued and granted. Viola/Cesario falls in love with Orsino whilst trying to persuade Olivia to love Orsino, which results in Olivia falling in love with Viola/Ceasrio. It’s a complicated, and ironic, love triangle, which is only resolved by it gaining another edge and becoming a love square. Sebastian, Viola’s brother, comes along which Olivia mistakes for Viola; she “saves” him from a group of knights and declares her love to him. Sebastian is confused and bewildered because he’s never seen this woman before in his life; she swoons over him and claims him as hers. It’s all very funny and a little bit of a headache if you’ve never read this. Mistaken identity is the reason for all of this. Viola is pretending to be a man, which makes her look just like her brother, and leads to the comic confusion.

This may sound complex, but it’s not. It’s perhaps one of the easiest of Shakespeare’s plays to follow, if you struggle with that sort of thing. The all-male cast of the globe production made the gender divides even stranger. There was a man acting a female character who was pretending to be a man. It was all so good. Olivia was melodramatic and ridiculously exaggerated as a female, which made the production so ludicrously entertaining. If you’ve got a spare few hours, and your're in need of a good laugh, I recommend watching it.

Now a strange astonishing thing or two happened, off the west coast of the Balkans, ( Illyria) in an undetermined age, aristocratic identical twins a boy and a girl well around twenty, give or take a few years were lost at sea, shipwrecked by a powerful storm. Presumed drowned by the other surviving sibling, both saw their relative in an untenable situation. But this being a play the twins keep on breathing reaching the beautiful, dry, glorious beach with separate help from out of the blue, the ship's kind sea captain and an infamous pirate , miracles do occur sometimes. Nevertheless, unknown to the grieving duo ... For some reason they changed their names on land, Sebastian becomes Roderigo and his sister Viola much more drastically a man, Cesario wearing men's clothes, a pretty boy she is too (a rose by any other name would smell as sweet). She/He, starts working for the local Duke Orsino, who loves another person of noble blood , Countess Olivia. But the lady is grieving for a recently deceased beloved brother and is in no mood for romance, besides the Duke doesn't appeal to her sad soul. Olivia needs a year to mourn the lady tells the passionate, impatient Duke. And Olivia has a secret crush on his messenger Cesario, ( Orsino is a very jealous, fierce man, who likes to duel) he also after just a few days becomes very fond of his new, sweet servant. Now the distraught Countess, in her mansion has her drunken uncle living with her, a big headache Sir Toby, imbibing all night long coming home in a boisterous condition out of control, waking up the whole household with his cowardly young friend, Sir Andrew. What can Olivia do, he's a relative. And Sir Andrew wants to marry the countess too and has given money to her impecunious uncle. Another member of her entourage is her late father's jester The Fool also called Feste, acting silly is his job and does it very well but The Fool is the smartest one around. Witty comments are his specialty ... Still the head of her servants stern Malvolio, hated by the rest rules with an iron hand, except Sir Toby the noble family is above him. But the lackeys are restless and want revenge. More trouble for Lady Olivia, she falls in desperate love with the disguised Viola as Cesario, who becomes very uneasy. And when Sebastian finally arrives in town people speak to the visitor, as if they recognize him ! The twin feels quite confused agitated, is he or these strangers mad ? Even Sir Andrew and Sir Toby, take their swords out to fight the supposedly timid "Cesario" , who is not his sister and knows how to duel. A surprise ensues for the not too brave pair. Another splendid fun play , from the incomparable master William Shakespeare... enough said or written.

Two things stand out to me regarding William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. The first is the courage and strength of the play's women characters. The second is the way in which this play, composed at the height of Shakespeare's powers as a writer, mixes high and low comedy so seamlessly.

We know now the practical challenges that faced Shakespeare and other playwrights of the Elizabethan era as they considered their prospective audiences. In that time when playgoing was a profession of dubious respectability, theatre companies had to draw in every potential customer they could. Nobles and well-to-do commoners could sit comfortably in the gallery, shielded from the heat of summer, the cold of other seasons, and the rain that falls in England all year round. Those with less disposable income, by contrast, would pay a lesser fee to stand in the open area in front of the stage, exposed to the elements.

And those socioeconomic differences in turn influenced what different audience members wanted to see in their dramatic entertainment. The affluent gallery guests would expect witty repartee, sophisticated commentary on the social scene of their time, and well-drawn characters in interesting situations. The "groundlings," by contrast, inhabiting the late-16th- or early-17th-century equivalent of a mosh pit, wanted much earthier entertainment - sex talk; jokes about bodily functions; characters clobbering one another after the manner of the Three Stooges, or the Minions in the Despicable Me movies. A good playwright had to provide an audience with all of the above.

Fortunately for Shakespeare, for the audience of his time, and for all of us, he was a great playwright; and all the elements of Twelfth Night combine for a delightful comic mix.

The delights of Twelfth Night start with the nuances of its title - a deceptively casual title for a play constructed with such care. The post-comma part of the title - Or What You Will - has a "whatever" quality, as if the playwright genuinely doesn't care what he calls his play. The foreword to this edition discusses a popular theory that Shakespeare may have written the play specifically for a Twelfth Night entertainment in Queen Elizabeth's court, when the English monarch was receiving an Italian duke at court in 1601.

Interesting theory, that; but the mystery behind the reasons for the title of Twelfth Night remains. Perhaps it is for that reason that director Trevor Nunn, in his 1996 film adaptation of the play, provides at the beginning of the film some context, added by the screenwriter, to provide some explanation for the play's otherwise-unexplained title: "Once, upon Twelfth Night -- or what you will/Aboard a ship bound home to Messaline/The festive company, dressed for masquerade/Delight above the rest in two young twins." Pretty gutsy, to put one's own blank-verse iambic pentameter right next to Shakespeare's.

But to the play. The high comedy of Twelfth Night emanates from the seemingly grave situation of two young twins, Viola and Sebastian, whose ship is wrecked off the coast of Illyria, a region of the western Balkans roughly corresponding to the former Yugoslavia. Sebastian is missing and presumed lost; his sister Viola, knowing that she will not be safe traveling as a woman alone in a strange country, disguises herself as a man and takes the name of Cesario. In this guise, Viola becomes a favored courtier of Orsino, Duke of Illyria, and gradually finds herself falling in love with the duke.

Duke Orsino, like so many nobles in Shakespeare's work, is a bit of a mess; he claims to be desperately in love with the countess Olivia, but part of the supposed intensity of his emotion may stem from Olivia's inaccessibility (her brother has died, and she has pledged not to marry until a seven years' period of mourning has elapsed).

Many people know Orsino's famous first line of the play: "If music be the food of love, play on." Not as many, by contrast, are aware that Orsino then insists on the musicians stopping and re-playing a particular part of the song -- "That strain again! It had a dying fall" -- like that drunk guy in a bar who goes to the jukebox and plays song G5, over and over and over. And then Orsino contradicts himself altogether by saying, "Enough, no more!/'Tis not so sweet now as it was before." Orsino is not really in love; he is in love with the idea of being in love.

The low comedy of the play, meanwhile, comes to us courtesy of Olivia's uncle, one Sir Toby Belch. (I suppose calling him Sir Toby Fart would have been a bit much.) Sir Toby, whose place in Olivia's family and household gives him a certain freedom to eat, drink, and be belchy, speaks what many of the "groundlings" in Shakespeare's audience would no doubt have been thinking regarding the pretensions of the upper classes of that time, as when he scornfully says to another character, "Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?"

Sir Toby is keeping himself in pocket change through regular contributions from an unfortunate and feckless nobleman, one Sir Andrew Aguecheek (or "Fever-face," if you will), who regularly supplies the Belchster with money as part of a hopeless suit for Olivia's hand. Amidst this collection of ne'er-do-wells, Maria, an attendant to Olivia, is a long-suffering spokesperson for common sense.

A third comedic plotline proceeds from the antagonism between Feste, Olivia's clown (and one of a long line of wise Shakespearean fools), and Olivia's priggish and stuck-up steward Malvolio, who would like nothing better than to see Feste dismissed from Olivia's service. Olivia aptly tells Malvolio that "you are sick of self-love...and taste with a distempered appetite", and any first-time reader of Twelfth Night who is familiar with the norms of Shakespearean comedy will sense at once that Malvolio has some sort of comeuppance coming his way.

From these three plotlines, the comedy ensues. Viola, whose disguise as Cesario gets him admitted to Olivia's court to plead the Duke's suit, learns to her shock that Olivia has fallen in love with Cesario -- or, to put it another way, with the male disguise that conceals the woman Viola. Viola's twin brother Sebastian, who survived the shipwreck, meanwhile makes his way toward Orsino's kingdom, where his resemblance to Viola results in comic complications that show the extent of Shakespeare's debt to the Roman comedic playwright Plautus. And Sir Toby, Feste, and Maria concoct a plot to humiliate the self-important Malvolio by getting him to think that Olivia has fallen in love with him. And Shakespeare brings it all together quite seamlessly in Act V.

As mentioned above, the strength of the women characters in Twelfth Night really stands out for me. Viola is brave, smart, and kind; cast into a situation of adversity, she survives by her wits without losing her humanity or her compassion. She is a truly heroic character, and her heroism is human and believable. Small wonder that the Shakespeare character from the film Shakespeare in Love (1998), inspired by his love for the noblewoman Viola de Lesseps, speaks at film's end of his plans for writing Twelfth Night, and says of the character Viola that her "soul is greater than the ocean, and her spirit stronger than the sea's embrace. Not for her a watery end, but a new life beginning on a stranger shore. It will be a love story. For she will be my heroine for all time. And her name will be Viola."

There is something moving in the way Olivia finds herself falling in love against her will, never knowing that she is falling in love with a woman rather than a man. And Maria shows that those like Malvolio who would dismiss her determination and intelligence do so at their own peril.

I also like the play's reflections on gender. Just as Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, disguising himself as a girl at one point in that novel, must learn to negotiate gender as a construct - by "throwing like a girl," among other lessons - so Viola must learn through careful observation what is socially determined, rather than biologically innate, about being "one of the guys." That Shakespeare engaged these complex thematic ideas in a play that is so much fun is enduring proof of his genius.

It is a bit of an anachronism when Queen Elizabeth in Shakespeare in Love watches the first staging of Romeo and Juliet, is moved by the tragedy of the young lovers, and then instructs one of her courtiers to "tell Master Shakespeare, something more cheerful next time, for Twelfth Night." In point of fact, it is likely that eight years and quite a few plays separated Romeo and Juliet from Twelfth Night. But it is no accident that Tom Stoppard, screenwriter for Shakespeare in Love (and a man who, as author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, knows his Shakespeare), made a point of evoking Twelfth Night as a particularly strong example of Shakespeare's artistry. Seeking out this great play, and enjoying it, is much more than a matter of "what you will."

What a beautiful gay fiasco, the proportions of which only Shakespeare can pull off. A hilariously irreverent play that is also a precise staging of desire and gender that thwarts all kinds of convention. Shakespeare was simply, certifiably, That Bitch™️.

“Twelfth night” is probably the most well rounded of all the Shakespearean comedies I have read so far, both for its structure and thematic scope, which is close to the darkest side of his best tragedies.

Evading the somewhat shallow hedonism of his earlier comedies, the perplexed reader encounters a play that is opened with a shipwreck on the coast of the fictional town of Illyria. The twins Viola and Sebastian were onboard of the crashed vessel but they lose sight of each other amidst the chaos and they both assume the other is dead. A chain of improbable events lead to several impersonations and mistaken identities that involve gender and class transformation, setting Viola as a male servant in the court of the Duke of Orsino who is vainly fixated on the damsel Olivia, whose grief for her lost brother prevents her from reciprocating the Duke’s passion. Against all predictions, Viola becomes the Duke’s confidant and slowly conquers not only his heart but also Olivia’s, giving way to a jocular situation that is impossible to argue with logic as seen in Orsino’s frustrated lament:

“One face, one voice, one habit, and two persons!
A natural perspective, that is, and is not!”
Act V, scene 2.

The action of this play is somewhat fragmented and the characters seem to act merely on impulse; that trait alone presents quite a contrast to the deliberation displayed by the most iconic protagonists of the Bard’s oeuvre. The main attraction of this comedy shouldn’t be expected in the parallel plots or in the tangled web of misplaced identities that defy gender bias and preconceived ideas about sexual orientation, heartbreak, grief or mockery; instead, it is to be found in the musicality of the language that shines more brightly in Orsino’s interventions and the Fool’s sagacious interludes.

The riotous undertone of this wild play appeals to the contradictions that we all carry inside us, which keep us awake at night, tossing and turning, wondering what it is that we expect from life, of the yearning to love and be loved, but mainly of the hidden desires that we do not dare to bring to the surface, which Shakespeare did never avoid. He challenges us to be courageous and face them, and make of our next step “what we will”.

Twelfth Night is the first Shakespearean play I read. I was too young to appreciate Shakespeare at that time but I still remember liking it very much. So, when I decide to return to reading Shakespeare once again, it was natural for me to begin with Twelfth Night. To my greater disappointment, I felt something vacant and bare in the play. I just couldn’t believe it is the same play that I used to like so much. I don’t know if it is due to the edition that I read or my mood at the time of reading. So, I told myself that I would return to it once again. I’m really glad that I did, for I’m restored to my earlier opinion of the play.

Touching on the themes of love, desire, deception, and mistaken identity, Twelfth Night is one of Shakespeare’s more complex comedies. The play consists of a few different stories: the love triangle of Duke Orsino, Countess Olivia, and Viola, the chaos ensued due to mistaken identity, and a cruel trick of heart played as means of revenge. All these separate stories are cleverly interwoven and all nicely tied up in the end.

Twelfth Night has an interesting set of characters, Viola and Countess Olivia being my favourites. The play is full of satire, humour, and witty prose. The writing is beautiful and graceful even though it doesn’t have the pure lyrical beauty of Shakespearean plays like Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. There is also a good element of action.

It was a fun read and I loved it. I’m really happy with the outcome of this read. Now I can honestly say that Twelfth Night is my favourite Shakespearean comedy.