this ones gay <3

Hilarious.

My favorite Shakespearean comedy

This play was hilarious. I read it out loud with my friend, Anna, and we were making fun of the characters' antics the whole time.
Every character was so fun to read. Toby, Maria, and Andrew are such a chaotic trio, and the Fools have great lines and songs. Of course, the main characters are in a ridiculous love tangle because it's Shakespeare, with the added bonus of Viola having to dress up like a man just to further complicate things. Also, this is yet another Shakespeare play with a gay Antonio, which is always good to see.
Anyway, I usually go for the tragedies, but this comedy was great — I definitely recommend it as a good introduction for anyone who's wary of Shakespeare.

It definitely wasn't the easiest play of Shakespeare's to read, but it provided some really interesting characters and insight into gender roles during that time period. I would love to use this with students and have them analyze the role of both sexes and the stereotypes they view with each. Also, there are so many resources to use that teachers could use to relate this to students' lives, especially the Amanda Bynes movie, She's the Man. Fun to read and one of the better comedies, in my opinion.

4 Stars

Overview

"Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them."

While not his most well-known work, The Twelfth Night is certainly one of my favorite works by Shakespeare. I've always enjoyed his comedies more than his tragedies, and this one was filled with his trademark wit and crazy situations

Pros:

Shakespeare loved him some wordplay, and as always, it's masterful. The jokes were quick and hilarious, while still revealing things about the characters-- such as Sir Andrews misunderstanding of the word "accost" allowing the audience to learn how truly "refined" he is.

While this was most certainly a comedy, there were several gorgeous passages dedicated to love and life, and I found Shakespeare's prose as beautiful and smooth as ever.

This whole play revolves around Viola, a young lady who survives a shipwreck and decides to get ahead in life by dressing as a man and the antics that result from this. In itself this was quite funny, but I loved imagining it the way Shakespeare intended. With an all male cast, Viola would have been a man playing a woman playing a man.

Who do I have to pay to get a retelling where Antonio and Sebastian end up together?

Cons:

Parts of this felt like Shakespeare just wanted to cut to the action, so most of the build-up or character motivation was just glossed over. For instance, why does Viola dress as a man? We're told it's to get ahead in the world, but how she plans on doing that just never made sense to me.

Quite a few dated jokes-- which seems like a ridiculous complaint to make about something written in 1602, but it did impact my enjoyment of the story. I had to suspend disbelief that there could be a pair of fraternal twins who looked so alike people could confuse them. And one particular vulgar joke relies upon Elizabethan slang for a woman's lady bits.

In Conclusion:

As always, Shakespeare is the king of wit, and this was hilarious-- even if a bit rushed or absurd in places.