Twelfth Night

Separated twins, practical jokers, pining lovers, and a comic villain populate the city of Illyria, where the drama of TWELFTH NIGHT unfolds. When the fraternal twins Viola and Sebastian independently wash ashore in the city from a shipwreck , unbeknownst to one another, each assumes the other is dead. With Viola disguised as a man, the Duke Orsino, the gentlewoman Olivia, and the kind Antonio intermittently confuse the identity of the twins. Meanwhile, the victim of a practical joke, the priggish Malvolio acts so peculiarly that he is confined to a mental institution. Much confusion needs ironing out before the weddings in the last scene. TWELFTH NIGHT is based on a late 16th-century play by Barnable Rich, which itself drew inspiration from many French and Italian sources. The earliest recorded performance was in 1602, and it was probably penned between 1599 and 1601. Early in 1601 an Italian visitor named Orsino visited the court of Queen Elizabeth, perhaps inspiring Shakespeare's use of his name for the Duke here.