During and just after Shakespeare's lifetime

The earliest known performance took place at Middle Temple Hall, one of the Inns of Court, on Candlemas night, 2 February 1602. The only record of the performance is an entry in the diary of the lawyer John Manningham, who wrote:
At our feast we had a play called "Twelve Night, or What You Will", much like "Comedy of Errors" or "Menachmi" inPlautus, but most like and near to that in Italian called "Inganni". A good practice in it to make the steward believe his lady-widow was in love with him, by counterfeiting a letter as from his lady, in general term telling him what she liked best in him and prescribing his gesture in smiling, his apparel, etc. and then, when he came to practice, making him believe they took him for mad.

 

It may have been performed earlier as well, before the Court at Whitehall Palace on Twelfth Night (6 January) of 1601.Twelfth Night was also performed at Court on Easter Monday, 6 April 1618, and again at Candlemas in 1623.

 

The play was also one of the earliest Shakespearean works acted at the start of the Restoration; Sir William Davenant’s adaptation was staged in 1661.

Another adaptation, Love Betray'd, or, The Agreeable Disappointment, was acted at lincoln’s Inn Fields in 1703. After holding the stage only in the adaptations in the late 17th century and early 18th century, the original Shakespearean text of Twelfth Night was revived in 1741.

 

A memorable production directed by Liviu Ciulei at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, October–November 1984, was set in the context of an archetypal circus world, emphasising its convivial, carnival tone.

 

When the play was first performed, all female parts were played by men or boys, but it has been the practice for some centuries now to cast women or girls in the female parts in all plays. The company of Shakespeare’s Globe, London, has produced many notable, highly popular all-male performances, and a highlight of their 2002 season was Twelfth Night, with the Globe's artistic director Mark Rylance playing the part of Olivia. This season was preceded, in February, by a performance of the play by the same company at Middle Temple Hall, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the play's première, at the same venue. The same production was revived in 2012-13