The search for identity in recent German productions of Twelfth Night

Abstract

Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night creates a world which is full of self-deception and characters who have lost touch with reality. As a result, they are forced to self-reflect and feel compelled to embark on various quests in order to search for their own identities, struggling with questions of both essential and existential nature: Who am I? What am I missing? Who can make me whole? While this search for identity certainly is one of the main motifs of the comedy in question, often an additional focus is placed on staging the psychology of the characters and on depicting them lost in the dreamlike fantasy of Illyria. Loneliness, confusion and a lack of knowing their true self as well as the self of the other characterises their being. As a consequence of the ‘psychological disorders’ of the characters, their ‘love play’ is presented as an attempt to overcome this state by forming a bond with another person. I will focus on two recent German productions, both staged in 2014 on the occasion of the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth, in order to analyse how these heavily revised adaptations engage with conflict in terms of gender as well as identity. After locating both performances within the German tradition of staging the play, the article sets out to trace the identity struggles of and the psychological engagement with the characters of Twelfth Night in these productions.