Shakespeare in Love write something "a little more cheerful next time, for Twelfth Night". Viola and Shakespeare say their goodbyes, and he vows to immortalise her, as he imagines the beginning of "Twelfth Night", in character as a castaway disguised as a man after a voyage to a strange land. The original idea for "Shakespeare in Love" was suggested to screenwriter Marc Norman in the late 1980s by his son Zachary. Norman wrote a draft screenplay which he presented to director Edward Zwick, which attracted Julia Roberts, who agreed to play Viola. However, Zwick disliked Norman's screenplay and hired the playwright Tom Stoppard
The Two-Character Play marked departure from the naturalism of his classics, familiar themes permeate. Confinement due to mental illness, repression leading to social isolation and the tyranny and claustrophobia that come from impinging on one another’s psychological and physical space are all present in "The Two-Character Play". When the play premiered in its various forms, it was not well received by critics or audiences. At the time many audiences attended the theatre as a form of escapism. "The Two-Character Play" provided the exact opposite. Clare and Felice, the actors, as well as the characters they play, cannot, no matter how hard they try