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Sir Ian McKellen
The rehearsed reading of Twelfth Night will be produced by the new trans and nonbinary theater company, Trans What You Will.
Sir Ian McKellen will serve as host to a rehearsed reading of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night with an all transgender and nonbinary cast of actors. The reading will be produced by Trans What You Will, a new Shakespearean theater company featuring trans and nonbinary performers, The Standardreports. The one-night-only performance takes place July 25 at the Space Theatre in London and will be livestreamed online.
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“Twelfth Night is perhaps the funniest and most moving of Shakespeare’s plays,” McKellen said in a social media post for Trans What You Will. “This is achieved through the complexity of gender and sexuality from first to last. I’m really looking forward to the impact of this latest version of the play at The Space. I hope to see you there!”
Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night was an obvious choice for the theater company’s production. Cisgender female protagonist Viola disguises herself as a man named Cesario so that she might work for Duke Orsino, only to fall in love with him. Meanwhile, the duke is in love with the Countess Olivia, who has fallen in love with Cesario.
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“Twelfth Night already toys with gender and performance,” said director Phoebe Kemp. “It feels like Shakespeare wrote it for us.”
McKellen is a Tony Award-winning actor and two-time Oscar nominee. He came out as gay in 1988 in protest of U.K. legislation that barred local governments and schools from “promoting homosexuality.” The law was repealed in 2003.
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You can learn more about Trans What You Will’s production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, hosted by Ian McKellen and starring an all trans and nonbinary cast, at www.transwhatyouwill.org.uk. All proceeds from the event will benefit Not a Phase, a U.K.-based charity supporting trans and gender-diverse people.
