Shakespeare’s work has a lot of LGBTQ+ readings – based on what I’ve read about his life, I am sure that some of this was genuinely intended by the author, but I think a lot of the time it’s a case of us wanting it to be there, rather than authorial intent. However, Twelfth Night is a case where I don’t think anybody can deny the queer themes. I’d say it’s the gayest Shakespeare play I’ve encountered.
The storyline follows two twins, Viola and Sebastian, who are washed ashore in Illyria. The two lose contact and Viola disguises herself as a man named Cesario while trying to figure out what to do along with the ship’s captain. If the queer themes inherent in a woman living disguised as a man weren’t already strong enough, things get even better when she gets used as a pageboy to deliver messages to a woman named Olivia, who falls in love with Viola while believing that she is a man.
The whole cross-dressing and inadvertent same-sex attraction endears me to Twelfth Night on its own. I’ve not encountered any other stories from this era that play with gender like this, so Shakespeare fans with an interest in queer history should definitely give it a go for that reason alone. There may not be an instance of someone overtly and consciously being attracted to someone they know is the same sex, but that didn’t take anything away from it for me.
Nonetheless, outside of that interesting angle, the storyline is one of Shakepeare’s weaker pieces of work (as I often find is the case with his comedies). It’s a lot of the usual sort of misunderstandings and trickery that you find in these types of plays. It’s not bad, but quite light – but then again, that is exactly what it was designed to be. Originally, this was play was made to be enjoyed at the end of the Christmas period (hence Twelfth Night – the twelfth night of Christmas). I can see that. It’d be a good one to read while you have a bit of time on your hands between Christmas and New Year’s.
Rating: 7.2/10
