Ian McKellen to Introduce All-Trans Production of Twelfth Night

Sir Ian McKellen will give a special guest introduction to an all-trans production of Shakespeare’s play, Twelfth Night. Trans What You Will, a transgender theater company dedicated to staging Shakespeare plays with trans and nonbinary performers, will produce the beloved comedy this summer in London, according to Them.

A staged reading of Twelfth Night will take place at The Space in London on July 25. The theater company wrote in a post on Instagram that the “inherent queerness” of the play is “glaringly apparent to so many.”

“You’ve got a lady disguised as a man, seducing another lady on behalf of a lord, but nothing goes to plan when the lady falls for the disguised lady, and the disguised lady falls for the lord!” Trans What You Will adds. 

The play follows Viola and Sebastian, two twins who are separated by a shipwreck. Viola disguises herself as a man, Cesario, to enter the service of Duke Orsino, a powerful nobleman who rules over the area. As Cesario, she serves as a wingman to Orsino, who’s in love with Countess Olivia. However, Olivia falls in love with Cesario. Viola falls in love with Orsino and, of course, the comedic chaos unfolds. 

Ian calls Twelfth Night “perhaps the funniest and most moving of Shakespeare’s plays.” He adds that it “is achieved through the complexity of gender and sexuality from first to last.” Ian is also “really looking forward to the impact of this latest version of the play at The Space.”

The play will be live-streamed, though there are no additional details at the moment. Trans What You Will is crowdfunding for production costs with any profit being donated to Not a Phase, a U.K.-based charity organization committed to uplifting and improving the lives of trans adults through awareness campaigns, social projects, and funding trans-lead initiatives. 

Photos courtesy social media