THE Cambridge Shakespeare Festival’s production of “Twelfth Night” sails into Shenzhen in early April, offering local audiences a rare chance to experience Shakespeare’s language and theatrical imagination in close-up. One of the Bard’s most bewitching comedies, “Twelfth Night” revels in mistaken identity, upside-down social order and the heady confusion of love.

The play begins with a shipwreck off the coast of Illyria. Separated from her twin brother, the young Viola adopts the disguise of a young man, Cesario, and enters the service of Duke Orsino. Consumed by his passion for the mourning Countess Olivia, Orsino sends “Cesario” to plead his cause — only for Olivia to fall for the messenger. Meanwhile Viola, hiding her true self, quietly finds herself falling for Orsino. The central love triangle is mirrored by a rowdy comic plot in Olivia’s household: The drunken Sir Toby Belch, the gullible Sir Andrew Aguecheek, the quick-witted maid Maria and the perceptive clown Feste conspire to trick the self-important steward Malvolio with a forged letter, producing some of the play’s most uproarious moments. When Viola’s twin, Sebastian, unexpectedly returns, identities are revealed, mistakes resolved and the play concludes in a jubilant celebration of love, desire and self-discovery.

This staging was one of six Shakespeare plays presented by the Cambridge Shakespeare Festival in 2025. Founded in 1988 by composer, conductor and scholar David Crilly, the festival is renowned for its summer seasons in the college gardens of Cambridge — from King’s and St John’s to Trinity and Downing — and for an eight-week run that blends scholarly rigor with theatrical vitality. The company’s artistic mission places language, expression and physicality at the center of performance, aiming to make Shakespeare intelligible and immediate for audiences regardless of prior familiarity.

Bringing “Twelfth Night” to Shenzhen for the first time, the festival invites families and theater lovers alike to delight in Shakespeare’s wit, emotional depth and theatrical mischief this spring.(Tang Li)