Shakespeare’s erotic comedy has it all: there’s emotional intoxication, repressed desire, gender play and desperate infatuation.
All about disguise
A violent shipwreck casts Viola ashore on an unknown coast in the country of Illyria. Crushed by grief over the loss of her twin brother, whom she believes has drowned, she disguises herself as a man.
Under the name Cesario she becomes a servant to Duke Orsino and must suppress her immediate infatuation with him when she is given the task of aiding his courtship of Countess Olivia. Ironically, the countess falls in deeper and deeper in love with Cesario – who is Viola in male attire.