Twelfth Night (1996) is a modern film adaptation of one of Shakespeare’s comedy plays, directed by Trevor Nunn. It was filmed in Cornwall, United Kingdom, on a budget of around 5 million USD. Trevor Nunn once worked as the Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, converting Shakespearean classics such as Macbeth into film, so when it came to making a film adaptation of Twelfth Night, he had experience. Trevor Nunn has also been awarded and nominated for various awards.
Major Differences
Twelfth Night is a play where two twins, Viola (Imogen Stubbs) and Sebastian (Steven Mackintosh) get separated during a shipwreck and assume each other is dead. Viola dresses up as a man and names herself “Cesario” in order to serve Count Orsino (Toby Stephens). Viola ends up loving Count Orsino but he is in love with Countess Olivia (Helena Carter) and sends Viola as “Cesario” as a messenger to express his love for her. However, instead of falling in love with Orsino, Olivia falls in love with “Cesario”. But Viola as “Cesario” cannot accept Olivia’s love, as she is a woman. Later on, Sebastian comes along and Olivia mistakes him for “Cesario” and asks if she can marry him, and Sebastian, thinking this was all a dream, accepted. Viola as “Cesario” didn’t know about any of this, and so the next time Olivia meets Viola as “Cesario” everyone gets thrown into a state of confusion. When Sebastian comes back, however, all the questions are answered and the twins finally reunite.
In most adaptations, there are alterations that add, change, or rearrange parts of the original, in order to make it flow better. The same applies to Twelfth Night. One major difference is that in the Globe production, the play starts off in Orsino’s court, where Orsino talks about his love of Olivia. In the film adaptation, however, it starts off by showing the shipwreck where Viola and Sebastian were separated, to show the viewer the backstory and further help explain the rest of the film. Also, on the ship that was shipwrecked, Viola and Sebastian were performing to an audience where they cross-dressed, giving the viewer the idea that they were often mistaken for each other and that Viola was experienced in cross-dressing, as later on Viola dresses up as a man to serve Count Orsino. Another major difference is that in the film adaptation of Twelfth Night, Illyria is at war with another country. This was to add suspense when Viola (and others) were washed ashore on Illyria, as they had to hide from the soldiers because they were refugees.
The Duel
This image shows the both reluctant Viola as “Cesario” and Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Richard E. Grant) about to duel. Sir Andrew, who is displayed as an idiot, is in love with Olivia but is in despair as he thinks that he has no chance against “Cesario”. Sir Toby Belch (Mel Smith), however, manages to convince Sir Andrew that if he challenges “Cesario” to a duel and wins, Olivia would fall for him. Sir Andrew believed this and proceeded to write a letter which he thinks will provoke fear in “Cesario” and gives it to Sir Toby to give to “Cesario”. Sir Toby reads it and finds that it is written quite poorly, and instead of giving the letter to “Cesario”, he decides to just speak with him personally. In the duel scene of the film adaptation, Sir Toby and Fabian (Peter Gunn) go back and forth between Viola as “Cesario” and Sir Andrew describing to each of them how terrifying and ferocious their opponent is. I think that this scene was done better in the film adaptation than the Globe production, because in the film, you are able to cut to Viola as “Cesario” and Sir Andrew separately, showing their reactions very clearly and setting the atmosphere, which was comedic. In the film adaptation, Viola as “Cesario” actually duelled with Sir Andrew whereas in the Globe production Antonio (Nicholas Farrell) just intercepts before they duel.
Malvolio Finds a Letter
In this image, Malvolio is reading a letter that he found. Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, Maria (Imelda Staunton) and Fabian has had enough of Malvolio and decides to make fun of him by getting Malvolio to do embarrassing things in front of Olivia. To do this, Maria (who had very similar handwriting to Olivia) wrote a letter suggesting that Olivia loves him and would like for him to come cross-gartered, in yellow stockings, and with a bit smile on his face, all of which Olivia despises. In the film adaptation, it is shown that Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and Fabian hide behind hedges and continue to move around as Malvolio walks near them, whereas in the Globe production all three of them just hide in a box tree. This scene has a lot of comedic value as the three of them eavesdrop on Malvolio thinking aloud to himself and mutter insults at him. I feel this scene was done better in the Globe production than in the film, because all three of them were hiding in a small box tree and the insults were made quite obvious.
Complications Concluded
When the twins Viola and Sebastian finally reunite, they help explain everything to everyone and all questions are answered. Trevor Nunn did quite a good job making an adaptation of Twelfth Night, sticking to the main plot and not altering too many things. It was interesting to see how Trevor Nunn interpreted the play version and there didn’t seem to be any unnecessary additions made to the play. Overall, both the play version and the film adaptation of Twelfth Night were a good experience to watch.