"Twelfth Night" is a classic Shakespearean tale where a woman pretends to be a man in order to make a living. The video above shows a rendition of the story.
Viola and her twin brother Sebastian are separated in a shipwreck, and when Viola is rescued, she disguises herself as a young man named Cesario in order to earn money. This leads her to work for Duke Orsino, who uses "Cesario" to help him woo a woman named Olivia.
The trouble is, Olivia instead falls for Viola's "Cesario" persona instead, and Viola falls for the Duke. There's also confusion when Sebastian reemerges and Olivia proposes to him thinking he's Cesario and they end up married.
After Sebastian and Viola reunite and the whole situation is sorted, the play ends with the Duke declaring his love for Viola. There was also a subplot wherein characters pranked Olivia's rude steward Malvolio into thinking Olivia was in love with him.
If any of that scenario sounds familiar, it's probably because "Twelfth Night" was later reimagined as the 2006 romantic comedy "She's the Man," which stars Amanda Bynes as Viola and Channing Tatum as Duke. The main difference is that Viola impersonates Sebastian rather than creating a new persona.
"Twelfth Night" is a funny, timeless romance story that's been reimagined dozens of times in all sorts of new and interesting ways. I even attended a Western version of the narrative at BYU once, complete with fake mustaches for the audience.
Don't judge the image quality. I took the photo on my iPod touch in 2016. And I was way too tired from all the ETS college tours to care what I looked like.
Back to the point, I really like the story of "Twelfth Night" and how timeless it is. Yet another of Shakespeare's play to novelization to teen movie adaptations for the win.
Funny enough, it's also an example of how long dressing in drag has been a thing, even if the reasons for dressing in drag were different for Viola than for more contemporary cases.
No matter how you interpret the plot though, the story has clearly continued to be popular for a reason and I'd suggest checking it out for yourself. Which specific adaptation you choose is all up to you.
No comments:
Post a Comment