While the presentation of themes related to love, deception, and gender generally align with shakespeares early comedies, twelfth night does strike some discordant tones by presenting darker, more maddening aspects of love and performance. It uses the new cambridge shakespeare text, as used by the royal shakespeare company and educational institutions across the world. Orsino is in love with the countess olivia, and sends viola to court her for him, but olivia falls for viola instead. Twelfth night is a story of love and confused identity. Read shakespeares twelfth night, with sidebyside no fear translations into modern english. Read all our plays in full freeofcharge on the lazy bee scripts web site. Believing her identical brother was killed in a shipwreck, viola disguises herself as a man and ends up falling in love with her boss, who uses her to send love letters to the countess olivia. Also this spring, a 75minute abridged version of twelfth night will be performed at the theater on navy pier and will tour to schools and theaters across the. Shakespeares classic comedy unfolds fast and furiously in this abridged oneact version, trimmed to the storys very essence. Deciding to dress herself as a boy to serve duke orsino, she soon falls in love with himand trips into quite a love triangle when the countess olivia, whom orisno loves, falls.
Violas version of the plays subtitle, what you will. Twelfth night is sometimes called a transvestite comedy for the obvious reason that its central character is a young woman, viola, who disguises herself as a pageboy, cesario. Twelfth night was probably written in 1601 and first performed in january of 1602. Twelfth night was written six years after romeo and juliet. At the beginning of the play, after having survived a shipwreck, viola the plays protagonist finds herself stranded in illyria. Deciding to dress herself as a boy to serve duke orsino, she soon falls in love with himand trips into quite a love triangle when the countess olivia, whom orisno loves, falls in love with the disguised viola. Shakespeare plays for kidsshort shakespeare scripts for schools. The stellar cast includes a young vanessa redgrave as olivia, and a hilarious willoughby goddard as sir toby.
Twelfth night the folger shakespeare folger digital texts. She, however, has fallen for his servant cesario, who is actually viola, a woman disguised as a man, who loves orsino. Based on the animated tales as seen on hbocover an illustrated, abridged version of the shakespeare comedy with background information and explanatory stage directions. Watch this story, one of our shakespeare lives videos, and find out. Critics argue about whether or not the play was written specifically for twelfth night. Twelfth night shakespeare viola and her twin brother are shipwrecked in an enemy country. We hope that you and your students will enjoy our workand shakespeares creative genius brought. A professionally edited onehour version of shakespeares play, twelfth night that is royaltyfree to drama notebook members. Twelfth night entire folio shakespeare theatre company. Our actors will visit your school to perform an abridged threeactor version of twelfth night that explores the. Sparknotes is here for you weve got everything you need to ace or teach. She disguises herself as a boy and assumes the name cesario for protection. Named for the twelfth night after christmas, the end of the christmas season, twelfth night plays with love and power.
Shakespeares treatment of love and romance and his use of dramatic devices are even more sophisticated than they were in his famous tragedy. Also this spring, a 75minute abridged version of twelfth night will be performed at the theater on navy pier and will tour to schools and theaters across the region. Twelfth night was the one day of the year when the nobility and peasantry switched roles and king was. Twelfth night abridged adapted by larry nehring 4 productions 6 comedy. Twelfth night january 6 marks the feast of the epiphany, a holiday in western christian theology that celebrates the day that the magi a. Twelfth night summary viola, separated from her twin sebastian, dresses as a boy and works for the duke orsino, whom she falls in love with. Romeo and juliet by william shakespeare abridged for the. Twelfth night refers to the evening of january 6, the twelfth day after christmas and the date of the adoration of the baby jesus by the magi. A thirty minute twelfth night by shakespeare, abridged bill tordoff.
This study guide is a resource for you, whether you are an administrator, counselor, teacher, or student. Twelfth night or what you will is an interesting blend of the sadness of separation between brother and sister, romance as each of them falls in love, farcical comedy filled with mostly gentle sarcasm and irony, and a bangup happy ending for the brother and sister, reunited and also now loved by the one each loves. The first surviving account of the plays performance comes from a diary entry written early in 1602, talking about the play and its basic plot. The play centers on the twins viola and sebastian, who are separated in a shipwreck. A thirty minute twelfth night by shakespeare, abridged bill. Twelfth night also marked the end of a winter festival that began on halloween. Twelfth night study guide literature guide litcharts. Believing her identical brother was killed in a shipwreck, viola disguises herself as a man and ends up falling in love with her boss.
Disguises, mistaken identities, and tangled love triangles distort reality for characters and audience. The enchanting story of viola dressed as the page cesario, with whom both orsino and orsinos erstwhile object of desire fall in love, is filled with rapturous. Summary of twelfth night shakespeare birthplace trust. A public performance of the ssf abridged script must be premiered at the professional ssf theatre.
Twelfth night translation table of contents after surviving a shipwreck, viola finds herself a stranger in illyria. Before the play begins there is a terrible storm and viola and her twin brother, sebastian, are in a shipwreck. Twelfth night an allusion to the night of festivity preceding the christian celebration of the epiphanycombines love, confusion, mistaken identities, and joyful discovery. Twelfth night or what you will is an interesting blend of the sadness of separation between brother and sister, romance as each of them falls in love, farcical comedy filled with mostly gentle sarcasm and irony, and a bangup happy ending for the brother and sister, re. The title of the play refers to january 6, the twelfth night after christmas and the.
Twelfth nightan allusion to the night of festivity preceding the christian celebration of the epiphanycombines love, confusion, mistaken identities, and joyful discovery. Read the nosweatshakespeare modern twelfth night ebook for free. Translated as an easy to read, exciting teenage novel. Twelfth night, 2007 95% of the original in general, because of the layers of plot details, the crossdressing, the extensive gulling of malvolio, the comic set pieces with sir toby and sir andrew, the lovely songs, the tyingup of loose threads at the end, twelfth night is difficult to abridge handily. Twelfth night complete text open source shakespeare. Shakespeare resource center twelfth night synopsis.
Sir toby belch why, he has three thousand ducats a year. Shakespeares twelfth night opens with the lovesick, orsino, duke of illyria feeling sorry for himself as his beautiful neighbour, countess olivia, has been rejecting his advances. First staged in 1602, twelfth night is one of shakespeares most performed plays. Twelfth night is one of the most commonly performed shakesperean comedies, and was also successful during shakespeares lifetime. Duke orsino pines for olivia, who is in mourning for her brother and vows to wear a veil and not marry for seven years. The onehour script features original dialogue interspersed with narration.
This abridged version of twelfth night was professionally edited by a former oregon shakespeare festival actor. Read modern twelfth night translation, scene by scene. Twelfth night is the fourth in a series of romantic comedies. In shakespeares time, violas part, like all the parts in twelfth night, would have been played by a man, because women were not allowed to act.
Twelfth night translation shakescleare, by litcharts. A 30minute closer to 40 minutes really abridgement of shakespeares twelfth night, using the original language, characters and plot, but with a reduced length, aiming to provide an introduction to shakespeare for primary schools. The scenes where paul scofield as malvolio is deceived with a forged letter into thinking that olivia loves him have a sidesplitting humor that comes through even though the. This maintains the integrity of the play while significantly shortening itmaking it easier for groups to perform. Twelfth night is a riotous comedy of hopelessly unrequited passions and mistaken identity. She has sworn to have nothing to do with men for seven years as she plans to spend that time mourning the death of her brother. Created using powtoon free sign up at youtube create animated videos and animated presentations for free. Twelfth night is concidered to be one of shakespeares highest achievement in. Twelfth night is neither an academic treatise on grief nor a factual documentary about 1850s san francisco. This is a digital copy of a book that was preserved for. Rehearsal from what im guessing is the blame not this haste of mine scene,performance of a little of festes return and violas first visit.
Whats so special about nosweatshakespeare s modern english translation of twelfth night. Suggested additional resources about the folger image 1 twelfth night poster. Twelfth night is part of naxos audiobooks exciting new series of complete dramatisations of the works of shakespeare, in conjunction with cambridge university press. Each of these are edited, abridged versions of the original plays and run from thrity to about fortyfive minutes. After the twins sebastian and viola survive a shipwreck, neither knows that the other is alive. Romeo and juliet by william shakespeare abridged for the shakespeare schools festival by. Quick summary for kids this story takes place in illyria, italy. We hope that you and your students will enjoy our workand shakespeares creative genius brought to life on stage.
Thats like giving someone a dog as a present, and then asking for the dog back in return. Read twelfth night here, with sidebyside no fear translations into modern english. Maria ay, but hell have but a year in all these ducats. A thirty minute twelfth night by shakespeare, abridged. They consist entirely of shakespeares original dialogue with the addition of stage directions and cues to help performers interpret the lines. Shakespeare free library scripts twelfth night or, what you will by william shakespeare abridged by jonny flood for get thee to the funnery at the new england youth theatre brattleboro, vt 2012 1. Twelfth night is one of shakespeares liveliest and most accessible romantic comedies but also deals intelligently with issues of gender, sexual desire, class and social harmony. But the twelfth night recording is, in my view, the best. Short twelfth night script for highschool and middleschool. Viola goes into service with count orsino of illyria, disguised as a. Scripts for plays, pantomimes, sketches, skits and musicals.
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