Stagecraft / dramatic techniques

Viola and disguise

• her disguise is a visual symbol of gender fluidity and mistaken identity

• Tension between appearance and reality is evident, creating dramatic irony

Orsino - use of musical motifs and poetic language

• Orsino speaks in verse and references music

• Emotional self-indulgence is staged as theatrical

Olivia - costume and physical blocking

• Olivias veil represents her grief and emotional distance

• Act of unveiling becomes a visual metaphor for her openness to love

Olivia and physicality

• assertive physicality with Cesario subverts gender expectations

Malvolio - physical comedy

• Forged letter scene ( 2;5), exaggerated facial expressions, poses and yellow stockings are key elements of visual humour

• Physical humiliation is essential to his subplot

Feste and the meta-theatrical

• breaks fourth wall and speaks in riddles that make the audience complicit

Feste and staging

• staged separately to reinforced his role as the observer and truth-teller

Sebastian - visual symmetry / doubling

• entrance near climax is a moment of visual confusion

• Identical costuming to Cesario adds to idea of mistaken identity Tension between

• Twin casting enhances theme of uncertainty

Sir Toby - volume and movement

• drunkenness shown through slurred speech and chaotic physicality

• Staging often places him at odds with the order of Olivias household, visually reinforcing his role as an agent of disorder

Disguise and identity shown through costume

• visual and verbal comedy from mistaken identity drives comed

Gender - casting

• Shakespeares all male cast add layers of ambiguity

• Modern casting allows more focus on homoerotic desire