The Actors' Church is delighted to welcome the London tour of Twelfth Night with the incredible Shakespeare in the Square, as part of their Theatre In The Garden Summer Season 2023. We are delighted to announce that we will be back this Summer to celebrate our sixth anniversary with a new production of Twelfth Night, Shakespeare’s glorious romantic comedy of mistaken identity, set in the 1920s. Twelfth Night is one of Shakespeare’s most loved romantic comedies and, like last year’s The Tempest, it also begins with shipwreck and loss. It focusses on a young woman, (Viola) who believes that she has lost her twin brother (Sebastian), and how her actions to survive catalyse the world around her. This is a world replete with distinctive characters from every walk of life: countesses, stewards, sea-farers, priests, fools and knights; characters epicurean and puritan, generous and cruel, naive and wise. Shakespeare’s understanding of the human condition is profound and complete. Writing a programme note, it’s hard to commit to one idea or interpretation, because he offers several prismatic lenses on who we are, what we most desire and what we are prepared to do to fulfil it. This is especially true for Twelfth Night. It seems incredibly modern – tackling questions of identity, gender and sexuality. It’s poetic and philosophical in its examination of love and madness, longing and loss. It intrigues through disguise, duality and deception and it is deeply satisfying in its final revelation. Why does Shakespeare make such an effort to reflect these different facets of humanity in Twelfth Night? And what, if anything, do we learn from all these refracted images of our unique selves? Could he be trying to show us that despite the differences in our identities – of gender, sexuality, class or origin – we are unified by something that surpasses all these: – the universal need to be loved. Age Recommendation: 6+