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 of one version of this play, which premiered at the Ivanhoe Theatre in Chicago in July 1971. "Out Cry" later premiered on Broadway, directed by Peter Glenville and co-starring Michael York and Cara Duff-MacCormick, and which ran from March 1–10, 1973 at the Lyceum Theater after one preview on February 28.) The plot is confusing and difficult to follow, with little sense of a resolution. "The Two-Character Play" has a concurrent double plot with the convention of a play within a play scenario. The characters of Clare and Felice are psychologically damaged from witnessing the traumatic murder/suicide of their parents.