Twelfth Night

About

“You do think you are not what you are. […] Then think you right; I am not what I am.”

Strange tidings come from the mysterious land of Illyria! Duke Orsino, a music lover, is tormented by his unrequited love for the beautiful Countess Olivia. Sadly, Olivia mourns the death of her brother and refuses to accept love from anyone until seven years have passed. Meanwhile, a merry group runs her court: the drunkard Sir Toby, Olivia’s cunning gentlewoman Maria, the irresistibly ridiculous suitor Sir Aguecheek, and the pompous puritan Malvolio, all overseen by Feste (or Clown), the witty royal jester. But one day, beautiful Viola is shipwrecked on the coast by the rough seas and starts a new life disguised as a young man named Cesario ... The plot thickens, taking unexpected twist and turns and spinning a whirlwind of misleading and mistaken identities. Yet one thing becomes clear: love knows no limits, though one can easily fall in hopeless love with the wrong person.

Illyria is an island of longing for those who suffer from chronic love and for the heartsick, where the turmoil of love – being both foolish and strong – is underscored with the ingenious game of hide-and-seek. Many a question thus arises, for which there is only one correct answer, reflected in the subtitle of the play itself: “What you will.”

Shakespeare’s wild and simultaneously melancholic comedy provides an arena for a merry yet cruel carnival of illusions and reality, deception and truth, obsession and love, showing us that light always prevails, even over our inner darkness.