SOURCE: "Twelfth Night: a Stage History," in Directors' Shakespeare: Approaches to "Twelfth Night" by Bill Alexander ander and others, edited by Michael Billington, Nick Hern Books, 1990, pp. ix-xxxi.

In the following essay, Billington presents a stage history of Twelfth Night, highlighting notable productions and performances, as well as critical reaction to both.

Twelfth Night may be Shakespeare's most perfect comedy. It is also one of the hardest to bring off in the theatre because of its sheer kaleidoscopic range of moods. It contains some of Shakespeare's most lyrical writing about love. It also contains scenes, such as the baiting of the confined Malvolio, that to a modern sensibility seem extremely cruel. It is about the impact of truth upon fantasy and about the journey of discovery undertaken by Orsino, Olivia, and Malvolio. At the same time it is about the cyclical nature not only of the seasons but...