“Twelfth Night” Preview

This November, the Delbarton Abbey Players will present “Twelfth Night” by William Shakespeare. Originally written in 1601, “Twelfth Night” is a romantic comedy originally intended to serve as entertainment for the close of the Christmas season. The play centers around two twins separated in a shipwreck. Following the shipwreck, the story follows one of the twins in what becomes a complicated love triangle. Several riotous sub-characters provide comedy in what seems to be an otherwise serious affair. Finally, the lost, and previously presumed dead, twin returns after being rescued by a sea captain. The lost twin only adds more drama and complication into the pre-existing love triangle. This play invokes large amounts of disguise which deceives many of the characters. “Twelfth Night” cannot simply be written off as a comedy because many elements such as vengeance and affection find their way into the play, and the Delbarton showing of “Twelfth Night” holds more gravity than other showings because of the situation. Significantly, the Delbarton Abbey Players ensure that each class has the chance to perform in one Shakespearean work. Therefore, Shakespeare’s productions are somewhat of a rarity that last appeared in 2015’s rendition of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. Now that the entire class that performed in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” has graduated, the Abbey Players move onto another work of Shakespeare. This play’s showing does not only reach Delbarton’s arts but also its education. All ninth, tenth, and Advanced Placement Literature and Composition students will read “Twelfth Night” at some point during the school year.