Formative Performances: Imogen Stubbs in “Twelfth Night”

It’s well known that Shakespeare had a fondness for writing gender-bending characters. He loved gender-bending characters even more than Oscar voters do. One of his best gender-bending roles was Viola in Twelfth Night, a character brought to life by Imogen Stubbs.

At the time Trevor Nunn’s adaptation ofTwelfth Night was filmed, Imogen Stubbs was married to Nunn. Did nepotism play a part in her casting? Almost definitely. Do I care? Not a bit. She is wonderful in this film. In every moment, you can see her positively aching with love for Orsino, even when she’s trying to hide it – and she also never lets you forget that she’s still mourning for her brother Sebastian.

I can also see her love for Sebastian influence her behavior around Olivia. An actress could easily play all of the scenes between Olivia and Viola/Cesario for comedy, showing the awkwardness of the situation, or frustration that the man she loves is pining for Olivia. Stubbs does have fun playing Viola’s awkward fright, but she also shows great sympathy for Olivia. Why wouldn’t she? Olivia has also lost a brother, and Stubbs never lets me forget that sense of empathy and kindness.

She’s lovely. I want to give her a hug.

Aside from her performance, this is also an excellent movie, period – perhaps the best Shakespeare film adaptation I’ve seen.