Twelfth Night, or What You Will

Shakespeare’s comedy Twelfth Night, or What You Will is a dazzling work that has the main character assuming a different identity. It also offers plenty of passion and desire, great costumes, and additional characters in various social roles. The play focuses on Viola, who has been shipwrecked and believes that her twin brother, Sebastian, has drowned. She then disguises herself as a man named Cesario and enters the service of Duke Orsino. Orsino is in love with the Countess Olivia, who in turn falls in love with Cesario, unaware that he is actually a woman. In her role as Cesario, Viola also begins to develop feelings for Olivia.

Why does Viola choose to pose as a male at the Duke’s court? In our inclusive presentation of Shakespeare’s work, we interlace the topics of gender and disability, without implying that they are somehow the same. Nevertheless, both result in boundaries being set in terms of social norms, and both enable us to identify who is seen and who remains “hidden.” In our production, we are not really seeking clear answers with regard to these issues; instead, we are looking to present a visual depiction of the relationship between freedom, pretense, and belonging.

Sarah Kurze was born in the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in 1993. She began her career as an assistant director at the Volksbühne theater in Berlin, and later worked in that same capacity with the Lovefuckers collective. From 2018 to 2020, she worked as an assistant director at the Deutsches Theater Berlin, where she also staged her own works. Since 2020, she has been producing performances on a regular basis at Theater Konstanz, Volkstheater Rostock, Deutsches Theater Göttingen, Theater Bonn, and Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, and also continues to do the same at Deutsches Theater Berlin. Twelfth Night, or What You Will marks her first production with the RambaZamba Theater.