Twelfth Night (or What you will)

Twelfth Night (or What you will), one of William Shakespeare's best-known comedies, is on stage at the India Theater directed by Giovanni Ortoleva.

The work in five acts written between 1599 and 1601 and published posthumously in 1623, alludes to the feast of the twelfth night (corresponding to the Epiphany) called in this way due to the number of days that pass from Christmas to this holiday.

Set in the ancient Balkan region of Illyria, the comedy tells a story of love and deception, in which the twins Viola and Sebastian, after a shipwreck, meet the Duke Orsino and the rich Countess Olivia. Orsino is in love with Olivia who ignores his court, but when Viola arrives in the town, a young survivor from a shipwreck who takes up service with the duke by disguising herself as a man with the name of Cesario, the girl falls madly in love with Orsino and, at the same time fall in love with Countess Olivia. To complicate the situation further, Viola's presumed dead twin, Sebastiano, also arrives in Illyria; after a series of misunderstandings and unexpected events, the story ends with an inevitable happy ending. Some elements of the work derive from Plautus' comedy Menecmi, in which one of the two twin brothers goes to Illyria in search of his brother. Furthermore, this Plautine comedy is at the origin of many plots based on the exchange of identities, including for example the Comedy of Errors written by Shakespeare himself.

With Giuseppe Aceto, Alessandro Bandini, Michelangelo Dalisi, Giovanni Drago, Anna Manella, Alberto Marcello, Francesca Osso, Edoardo Sorgente and Aurora Spreafico.

Photo credits. courtesy of Luca del Pia