At the center of the Twelfth Night feast was a large cake with a bean or coin baked into it and served to the assembled company the person whose slice of cake contained it became King Bean, the Christmas King, or Lord of Misrule-a commoner who would take the place of a king in order to watch over the topsy-turvy proceedings. In Renaissance England, Twelfth Night was known as a 'feast of misrule.' For the day, kings and nobles were to be treated as peasants, and peasants as kings and nobles. So, originally, 'Cesario' would probably have been a boy, dressed up as a woman, dressed up as a man.įeast of Misrule: Twelfth Night takes its name from an English holiday celebrated on January 5, the so-called 'twelfth night of Christmas' or the Eve of the Feast of the Epiphany. In Shakespeare's time, Viola's part, like all the parts in Twelfth Night, would have been played by a man, because women were not allowed to act.

Orsino is furious when he finds out but, once Viola and Sebastian meet and reveal their true identities, there is a happy ending – for everyone but poor Malvolio.What a drag! 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. When she sees Sebastian, who has survived the shipwreck, she naturally thinks he is Cesario and promptly marries him.

They convince Malvolio that Olivia is in love with him and make him look extremely foolish – Olivia thinks her servant has actually gone mad.

Meanwhile Olivia’s steward, Malvolio, is trying to keep order in the house but, her uncle Sir Toby Belch and his friends have other ideas. Orsino sends Viola to Olivia to try and win her round but, thinking Viola is a boy, Olivia falls in love with him. She also discovers that Orsino has fallen in love with Olivia but, following the death of her brother, she rejects him. She falls in love with him but cannot do anything about it because of her disguise. The twins Viola and Sebastian are separated in a shipwreck.įearing that Sebastian is dead, Viola disguises herself as a boy, calls herself Cesario and takes up service with Duke Orsino. An animated version of William Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” in a retelling of the classic play set to modern music.

12 night william shakespeare