Twelfth Night

By William Shakespeare

Adapted by Jennifer Le Blanc

Directed by Lisa A. Tromovitch

Shakespeare’s beloved Rom-Com Twelfth Night is Shakespeare’s quintessential romantic comedy, complete with mistaken identities, love triangles, and those who are lost, finding themselves in love.

If you want a kid-friendly version of Twelfth Night check out this adaptation.

See our Shakespeare 101 section for tips.

Brief Summary
Three plots combine in this rom-com:  First, Viola, separated from her twin Sebastian, dresses as a boy and works for the Duke Orsino, whom she falls in love with. Orsino is in love with the Countess Olivia, and sends Viola to court her for him, but Olivia falls for Viola instead. Sebastian arrives, causing a flood of mistaken identity and shenanigans ensue! Second, Sir Andrew is also courting Olivia at the encouragement of her Uncle Sir Toby who wants Sir Andrew around to party with (and pay for the partying). Third, tension between Olivia’s Steward, Malvolio, and the rest of the household leads to a series of practical jokes that go a little too far…

Synopsis
Viola has found herself on the shores of Illyria after a shipwreck separates her and her twin brother, Sebastian, whom she believes has drowned. She disguises herself as a man named Cesario and works as a page for Duke Orsino. Orsino is in love with Countess Olivia, but she refuses to see any suitors because she has dedicated herself to seven years of mourning for her recently deceased brother. Despite his former rejection, Orsino sends his new page Cesario (Viola in disguise) to court Olivia for him. Olivia continues to reject Orsino but is attracted to Cesario. She sends her proud steward, Malvolio, after him with a ring, which is, unknown to Malvolio, a gift from Olivia to Cesario. In the meantime, Viola has fallen in love with Duke Orsino, creating a love triangle: Viola loves Duke Orsino, Duke Orsino loves Olivia, and Olivia loves Viola disguised as Cesario.

Meanwhile, members of Olivia’s household plot to expose the pompous Malvolio, who thinks Olivia has fallen for him. These include Olivia’s uncle, Sir Toby Belch, her Gentlewoman, Maria, and Sir Toby’s friend, Sir Andrew Aguecheek. Sir Andrew also happens to be seeking the hand of Olivia. Together, they use a letter to trick Malvolio into believing Olivia loves him. The letter demands that Malvolio appear in yellow stockings, cross-gartered, and smiling to show his love for Olivia. After he does so, the Countess is horrified and leaves him in Sir Toby’s care, not knowing of the practical joke they are playing on Malvolio. Sir Toby has Malvolio shut up in the dark as a madman.

Viola’s twin brother, Sebastian, has also survived the shipwreck and comes to Illyria with the sailor who rescued him, Antonio. Antonio is a wanted man in Illyria for a successful raid on one of Orsino’s trading ships. Olivia sees Sebastian and believes he’s Cesario and asks him to marry her, and he agrees. Lots of confusion follows around the mistaken identity of Sebastian and Cesario, and exactly who is promised to whom. 

Additional Resources
https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/explore-shakespeare/shakespedia/shakespeares-plays/twelfth-night/?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwsaqzBhDdARIsAK2gqneeeLyoBTQE7opz6EVqjAECM1yXtlAO7c3eqoV5p07d1ehpqaR4gtUaAnJbEALw_wcB

https://www.rsc.org.uk/twelfth-night/the-plot

https://www.rsc.org.uk/shakespeare-learning-zone/twelfth-night/story/plot

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelfth_Night

Director’s Notes

How did you choose the period of the 1860s for Twelfth Night? 

Choice of period is always a crucial decision, as it affects how the audience moves through the story, what parameters are placed on designers, and how the actors need to adapt to etiquette and personal interactions. 

There were two avenues of thought that led me to choosing post-civil war America, the 1860s, as the period for this production. One was solely practical: I wanted a small cast show, with lots of doubling, which meant quick costume changes. We’re outside with limited backstage space. The easiest way to make those changes work is to be able to underdress pants (if an actor plays both male and female), so I started with a period when women’s skirts were floor-length. The second avenue of thought was about story: We learn at the beginning of the play that Olivia has lost a father and a brother within one year. A war supports that backstory. American post-civil war era came to mind. That idea took hold immediately as I thought about Sir Toby’s excessive drinking; could he have PTSD? It was a brutal war, with hand-to-hand combat leaving thousands of dead on the field. And Orsino seems to be almost forcing himself to “move on” to marriage and happy thoughts.  

Men have long been encouraged to marry and start families when they return from war as another way to put the atrocities they experienced behind them. 

To test the idea, I worked through various “problems” in the play, to see whether that choice would help or hinder the story Shakespeare wrote. One issue is that of Viola disguising herself as a man to get a position in Orsino’s court. An Elizabethan audience would immediately understand that Viola could never have asked for a guest room, since a single woman, even if of noble blood, would not have been allowed to stay overnight in a bachelor’s home. To strengthen that choice, I thought Viola could be from the South and not sure of a welcome in a Northern city. To add to her disguise, she takes on a Northern accent, using the character’s Southern accent only when talking to the audience or the trusted sea captain. 

A second “problem” to solve involves Malvolio. His supposed affinity for Puritanism would have made him a relished scapegoat for an Elizabethan theater-going audience’s wrath. The Puritans wanted the theaters closed, so no amount of abuse of this character would be considered “going too far” for Shakespeare’s actors or audience. But Shakespeare gives him a humanity that Olivia clearly appreciates. Why is she so fond of him? Shakespeare doesn’t give us lines to clarify the relationship, other than for Olivia to voice tolerance among her staff who come from different backgrounds. What if Malvolio was also from the South and yet stayed loyal to her and her family despite the war? That loyalty would certainly be appreciated, especially by a woman who might have needed his assistance running the estate after both her father and brother were gone. 

The setting continued to work as I, and then the actors, joined in discussion of other characters. America was a mix of accents and dialects as people came from all over to “the new world.” Matt Ballin wondered if Feste had been an Irish Volunteer and a musician; he would have seen war. In auditions, I asked actors to experiment with various accents, and French worked well for Valentine as a snooty young courtier. 

With actors doubling in multiple roles, having a distinct accent helps the audience keep the characters apart. 

Grant Huberty, our sound designer, found music from the period, and I simply loved it. Many of the songs have survived to this day, if only in beginning piano classes. 

Once cast, I did more research and discussed the choice with Laura Domingo, our Viola, who is Filipina. I learned that the first Filipinos landed in California in 1587, and more importantly for our purposes, a documented Filipino settlement was situated on the Louisiana coast in 1763. This strengthened the idea of Viola being from the South. Due to doubling, we cannot track ethnicity specifically in a production like this, but it’s nice to know there is historical support for the world we’re creating onstage. Li-Leng Au doubles as Maria and Sebastian. While many of us are aware of Chinese immigrants working on the railroad and in mining, there were also Chinese students studying in America from 1818-1825. Yung Wing, who earned a degree from Yale in 1854, was the first Chinese student to graduate from an American college. I fancied Maria to be the sister to Yung Wing or someone like him, being provided a position by the wealthy family of Countess Olivia while Maria’s brother pursued his studies. Again, this background for the characters doesn’t play directly into the story, but it provides us as actors and director with a shared, cohesive world to inhabit as we build the relationships. 

With the accents helping the audience differentiate characters—a practical concern—and the potential tensions supported by a South-North rivalry strengthening the choices the characters make in the text, the post-civil war period supported the production well.

What are some of the difficulties of presenting an Elizabethan story in a more modern setting? 

One of the biggest issues is status. While we clearly have status issues in modern society, there are instances where the translation is tricky. Maria is identified as “a gentlewoman” by multiple characters and is considered an appropriate mate for a nobleman, a “Sir.” Her dialogue with Sir Toby is even, not deferential. Yet she serves the countess. In Shakespeare’s day, high ranking families considered it a privilege to place their offspring in the home of a royal. The young courtiers would serve “their betters” but also receive training in fencing, dancing, etc., and an education with access to a personal library and tutors. There is one reference to Maria being introduced as a “chamber-maid,” but it is made by Sir Toby in a scene full of jokes. There is no other evidence that she is actually a maid, of the servant class, and there is much evidence to the contrary. 

There are other issues, including the use of weaponry. In the American Civil War, both guns and swords were in use, (though this was the last time, as swords proved no match to the destructive power of guns). Keeping the swordplay is not overly anachronistic. Duels were not fully banned in the US until 1880.

What do you mean by “adapted for a modern audience?” 

Shakespeare was not only a writer but a stakeholder in the company that produced his plays. There were no legal protections for copyright. Others would write out his plays (with some degree of success) and make money selling copies. Shakespeare made his money from ticket sales. 

With that in mind, his plays are rife with low-brow jokes (fart jokes, sexual innuendo, etc.) that pleased the groundlings, those who bought the cheapest tickets and stood in the yard in front of the stage. The scripts are also laced with literary references only the educated with access to classic texts would appreciate. There was always something for everyone! As a contemporary writer of his day, he references news that an Elizabethan audience member might have heard about that week in the local brothels or read about in a pamphlet. But for us, in 2024… we don’t know the gossip from 1601, so it’s just not funny. 

Knowing Shakespeare was an entertainer who worked hard to please all his ticket-buyers, Jenn Le Blanc, our adaptor, deleted passages that an average contemporary audience member would not be able to decipher without books in tow. We changed a few words to current usage. And she moved or reassigned a handful of lines to make the doubling work. We believe Will would appreciate the effort to please his twenty-first century fans with a leaner script. This also allowed us to add music beyond what Shakespeare had already indicated for the character of Feste, without making the show too long. (As of this writing, the performance s coming in well under two and half hours, including a 15-minute intermission!) The accents, music, and costumes together communicate the setting, time, and place. 

The history of adapting Shakespeare goes back hundreds of years. His plays suffered rewriting by academics in the 1700s, who “corrected” grammar and spelling, erasing rhythmic and emotional information meant for the actors. In the 1800s, sad endings were made happy again: Romeo and Juliet wake up! Today, a nonprofit called Play On! is commissioning contemporary writers to adapt the scripts to make them more accessible. Directors all over the world have been making changes, both large and small, to the texts for hundreds of years. One could make the argument that this is one of the reasons it’s fun to see different productions of the same play, enjoying a new take on a much-loved story.