Twelfth Night

by William Shakespeare, Elizabeth Schafer (Editor)

For four centuries Twelfth Night has inspired theatre directors and some have found class war; some have seen Malvolio as a tragic hero; some have found a passive Viola and others have found an action woman. Whether a production's emphasis is on gender bending, festivity, or trying to reinvent Shakespeare as Chekhov, the sheer variety of Twelfth Nights on offer over the centuries attests to the play's power as a stimulus to theatrical creativity. The dazzling range of the Twelfth Nights considered here includes the productively wayward as well as the conventionally respectable, productions which play to the contemporary market as well as those that seek to flout tradition. This indispensable stage history covers changing fashions in the fortunes of Twelfth Night, and includes a survey of a wide variety of theatrical interpretations of the play in the English-speaking world.

Genres: Shakespeare, Plays, Drama, Classics

300 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2010

About the author

William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner ("sharer") of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men after the ascension of King James VI and I of Scotland to the English throne. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, his sexuality, his religious beliefs, and even certain fringe theories as to whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best works produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, among them Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, all considered to be among the finest works in the English language. In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances) and collaborated with other playwrights.
Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. However, in 1623, John Heminge and Henry Condell, two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, published a more definitive text known as the First Folio, a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works that includes 36 of his plays. Its Preface was a prescient poem by Ben Jonson, a former rival of Shakespeare, that hailed Shakespeare with the now famous epithet: "not of an age, but for all time".

Reviews

[Mackenzie Clevenger · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25 - this play was fun, but I think I’m just more of a tragedy girlie than a comedy girlie.

I was kind of struck how some themes in this play felt really similar to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which I suppose makes sense that Shakespeare might have similar themes throughout his work, but it was more so the seemingly unimportance of people’s actual personalities in terms of falling in love. Olivia couldn’t tell that Sebastian was a different person who may have had a different personality than Cessario, and still married him just because he looked like Cessario. There seems to be an emphasis on the actual disposition of a person not being that important or being interchangeable if people look similar which is an interesting theme.

I honestly didn’t really care about Sir Toby or Sir Andrew’s plot line at all like they’re kind of the actual villains of the play and I don’t like them. It also took me a bit to understand why the Sebastian/Antonio plot line was important and it didn’t fully click until Olivia and Sebastian ran into each other, but even then was Antonio really needed as a character? Still, it was fun to see everyone running into one another and getting confused because of the twin situation until everything was eventually revealed, really illuminating the structure of a comedy in moving from chaos to order. I think that’s definitely the easiest to see in this play.

[juju · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I am all the daughters of my father’s house,
And all the brothers too—and yet I know not."

[Ben Avery]

This book is a must read. It is good for kids and is full of action adventure and a lot of romance.
Its about a ship that gets washed under water by a giant wave and twins are on the ship.The girl twin
(named Viola) thinks her twin brother (named Sabastian) is dead.Viola gets washed up in the country of Illyria. then she dresses up like a boy . . .










(i wont say anything else because it will spoil it)











by:Ben age:10

[Naomi · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I loved the concept of this book, I couldn't help but try to determine its appropriate audience while I was reading it. The book comes complete with the true Shakespearian language that only I would say late middle schoolers would be able to comprehend, I found the illustrations to be highly juvenile which might turn off readers. On that note, I love that this age group is being introduced to the wonderment of Shakespeare at all and found this a beautiful way to make it happen.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not my favorite of Shakespeare's, but then again i like the darker material. It was however light, fun, and a good distraction from all the dark stuff I had been reading! I recommend it for something fun but can still make you feel like a smarty pants

[Liz Thackeray · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read this play many, many times. And now I get to read it again with my students. I am really excited to read this play. It should be fun.

Finished! As of last week I have read this play six times in the past 3 weeks. And my students wonder why I have many of the lines memorized...

[Keon Avery · Rating 5 out of 5]

cool a story about a girl that dresses up as a boy!? a girl falls in love with the girl dressed up as a boy
but cos she is ship wrecked her brother sank but he is alive cool .
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
keon avery .Aged 8

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fun to read.

[Sarah]

The Lake Country Playhouse performed a version of this play set in the 1940s if I remember right.

[Michael P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting blend of text pages and comic book pages to retell Shakespeare's story, with lots of pedagogical bells and whistles to teach principles of literature to students with special needs.

[Christy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This series combines graphic novel format with Shakespeare's own words. An updated, illustrated version of Twelfth Night.

[StrictlySequential · Rating 5 out of 5]

First published in Britain - this is the non-U.K. edition

Engineered for optimal understanding so the modern reader doesn't miss the humour of yore!

[bea · Rating 4 out of 5]

read

[Amanda G · Rating 3 out of 5]

read