It is the purest and merriest comedy which Shakespeare has written. ... And the piece in truth is constituted throughout to make a strong impression of the maddest mirth. Rightly conceived and acted by players who even in caricature do not miss the line of beauty, it has an incredible effect. - GERVINUS, G. G., 1849-62, Shakespeare Commentaries, tr. Bunnett. p. 439.

Of all Shakespeare's Comedies, perhaps Twelfth Night is the most richly woven with various hues of love, serious and mock-heroic. The amorous threads take warmer shifting colours from their neighbourhood to the unmitigated remorseless merry-making of the harum-scarum old wag Sir Toby and his sparkling captain in mischief, the "most excellent devil of wit," Maria. Beside their loud conviviality and pitiless fun the languishing sentiment of the cultivated love-lore Duke stands out seven times refined, and goes with exquisite touch to the innermost sensibilities. - MINTO, WILLIAM, 1874-85, Characteristics of English Poets, p. 298.

At our feast wee had a play called "Twelue Night, or What you Will," much like the Commedy of Errores.... A good practice in it to make the Steward beleeve his Lady widdowe was in love with him, by counterfeyting a letter as from his Lady in generall termes, telling him what shee liked best in him, and prescribing his gesture in smiling, his apparaile, &c., and then when he came to practice making him beleeue they tooke him to be mad. -- Extract from JOHN MANNINGHAM's Diary, 2 February 1601.

January 6. - After dinner to the Duke's house, and there saw "Twelfth-Night" acted well, though it be but a silly play, and not related at all to the name or days. - SAMUEL PEPYS, 1663

This is justly considered as one of the most delightful of Shakspear's comedies. It is full of sweetness and pleasantry. It is perhaps too good-natured for comedy. It has little satire, and no spleen. It aimed at the ludicrous rather than the ridiculous. It makes us laugh at the follies of mankind not despise them, and still less bear any ill-will towards them. - WILLIAM HAZLITT 1817-69.

Shakespeare wrote Twelfth Night around 1600, about halfway through his career as a playwright. It is the last and perhaps most successful of his lighter comedies. The cycle of history plays was virtually complete and the great tragedies and darker comedies were still to come.

The play was originally conceived for a time of pleasure. Masques and revels were a feature of life at Court, as well as the Inns of Court and universities, over the three winter months. Special performances of plays were part of these festivities. Sometimes the make-believe embraced the whole feast: a Lord of Misrule attended by fool or jester, could usurp all normal authority and topsy-turvy inversions typical of the medieval Feast of Fools were perpetrated. It is this carnival spirit which presides over Shakespeare's comedy as gender becomes a masquerade in Viola's transformation into Cesario, aristocrats fall in love with servants (and vise versa), and stewards entertain absurd delusions of grandeur.

Nowadays what was once perceived as a romantic comedy, has come to be seen as something darker, with more than a touch of cynicism - a comedy of the sexes. Our production will take a different approach to the more traditional, period setting, and will focus on the ensemble playing of the strong and experienced