Twelfth Night
She has lost contact with her twin brother, Sebastian, who she believes has drowned, and with the aid of the Captain, she disguises herself as a young man named Cesario and enters the service of Duke Orsino.
[4] The play is believed to have drawn extensively on the Italian production Gl'ingannati (The Deceived Ones),[5] collectively written by the Accademia degli Intronati of Siena in 1531.
It is conjectured that the name of its male lead, Orsino, was suggested by Virginio Orsini, Duke of Bracciano, an Italian nobleman who visited London in the winter of 1600–01.
[14] Some modern scholars believe that Twelfth Night, with the added confusion of male actors and Viola's deception, addresses gender issues "with particular immediacy".
[17] The plot against Malvolio revolves around these ideas, and Fabian remarks in Act III, Scene iv: "If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction".
A good practice in it to make the steward believe his lady-widow was in love with him, by counterfeiting a letter as from his lady, in general terms telling him what she liked best in him and prescribing his gesture in smiling, his apparel, etc.
Lilian Baylis reopened the long-dormant Sadler's Wells Theatre in 1931 with a notable production of the play starring Ralph Richardson as Sir Toby and John Gielgud as Malvolio.
The Old Vic Theatre was reopened in 1950 (after suffering severe damage in the London Blitz in 1941) with a memorable production starring Peggy Ashcroft as Viola.
Gielgud directed a production at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre with Laurence Olivier as Malvolio and Vivien Leigh playing both Viola and Sebastian in 1955.
A memorable production directed by Liviu Ciulei at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis in 1984 was set in the context of an archetypal circus world, emphasising the play's convivial, carnivalesque tone.
Stephen Fry played Malvolio when the same production was revived in 2012–13, later transferring to sell-out runs in the West End and Broadway; it ran in repertory with Richard III.
[27] Many renowned actresses have played Viola in the latter half of the 20th century, and their performances been interpreted in the light of how far they allow the audience to experience the transgression of stereotypical gender roles.
[27] In 2017, the Royal National Theatre's production of Twelfth Night[30] changed some of the roles from male to female, including Feste, Fabian (who became Fabia), and, most notably, Malvolio – who became Malvolia – played by Tamsin Greig to largely positive reviews.
In 2017–18, the Royal Shakespeare Company staged a production directed by Christopher Luscombe; Adrian Edmondson played Malvolio, Kara Tointon Olivia, and Dinita Gohil Viola.
[35] In 2022, Old Fruit Jar Productions staged a 1980s-inspired twist on the play at Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool, swapping lords and ladies of stately homes for rowdy Benidorm bars and booze-fuelled escapades, as an introduction to Shakespeare for audiences unfamiliar with his work.
Produced for the new medium by George More O'Ferrall, the production is also notable for having featured a young actress who would later go on to win an Academy Award – Greer Garson.
The production featured Joan Plowright as Viola and Sebastian, Alec Guinness as Malvolio, Ralph Richardson as Sir Toby Belch, and Tommy Steele as an unusually prominent Feste.
This version was part of the BBC Television Shakespeare series and featured Felicity Kendal in the role of Viola, Sinéad Cusack as Olivia, Alec McCowen as Malvolio, and Robert Hardy as Sir Toby Belch.
In 1988, Kenneth Branagh's stage production of the play, starring Frances Barber as Viola and Richard Briers as Malvolio, was adapted for Thames Television.
It features David Troughton as Sir Toby, and is notable for its multi-ethnic cast including Parminder Nagra as Viola and Chiwetel Ejiofor as Orsino.
In April 2012, BBC Radio 3 broadcast a version directed by Sally Avens, with Paul Ready as Orsino, Naomi Frederick as Viola, David Tennant as Malvolio, and Ron Cook as Sir Toby Belch.
Operas based on Twelfth Night include Bedřich Smetana's unfinished Viola (1874, 1883–1884), Karel Weis's Blíženci (1892, 2nd version 1917), Ivan Jirko's Večer tříkrálový (1964) and Jan Klusák's Dvanáctá noc (1989).
A stage music based on Twelfth Night was composed in 1907 by Engelbert Humperdinck,[49] famous for his fairy-tale opera "Hänsel und Gretel".
"O Mistress Mine" (Act II, Scene 3) has been set to music as a solo song by many composers,[50] including Thomas Morley (also arranged by Percy Grainger, 1903); Arthur Sullivan (1866);[51] Hubert Parry (1886);[52] Charles Villiers Stanford (1896); Amy Beach (1897);[53] R. H. Walthew (1898);[54] W. Augustus Barratt (1903);[55] Roger Quilter (1905); Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1906); Benjamin Dale (1919); Peter Warlock (1924); Arthur Somervell (1927); Cecil Armstrong Gibbs (1936); Gerald Finzi (1942); Erich Korngold (1943); Peter Racine Fricker (1961); Sven-Eric Johanson (1974); Jaakko Mäntyjärvi (1984); Dave Matthews (2014); Paul Kelly (2016); David Barton (2019).
"Come Away, Come Away, Death" (Act II, Scene 4) has been set to music by composers Johannes Brahms (in a German translation by August Schlegel as "Lied von Shakespeare", the second of Four Songs for Female Choir, Op.
17, in 1860), Gerald Finzi (1942), Erich Korngold (1943), Roger Quilter, and Jean Sibelius (in a Swedish translation as "Kom nu hit", 1957).
Nietzsche also refers passingly to Twelfth Night (specifically, to Sir Andrew Aguecheek's suspicion, expressed in Act 1, Scene 3, that his excessive intake of beef is having an inverse effect on his wit) in the third essay of his Genealogy of Morality.
Agatha Christie's 1940 mystery novel Sad Cypress draws its title from a song in Act II, Scene IV of Twelfth Night.
"[61] American playwright Ken Ludwig wrote a play inspired by the details of Twelfth Night, called Leading Ladies.
Elizabeth Hand's novella Illyria features a high school production of Twelfth Night, containing many references to the play, especially Feste's song.
