Word: malvolio
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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That pretty much happened last week to the Malvolio of Arnold Moss which, after a promising start, grew broader at every appearance. The production in general was forthright, with Frances Reid attractively girlish, even where she should have been boyish, as Viola. If the evening wasn't a great deal of fun, it was perhaps because a forthright Twelfth Night is often little better than a fourth-rate one. The situation calls for magic...
Twelfth Night (by William Shakespeare; produced by Roger Stevens) has its immortal virtues-speeches filled with fragrance, bewitching songs. In Viola it has a charming heroine; in Malvolio, "sick of self-love," a monumental pompous ass. To him, as a huffing spoilsport, is addressed one of Shakespeare's crispest queries: "Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?" To him, by a frisking clown, is tossed some of Shakespeare's tersest wisdom: "There is no darkness but ignorance." And nowhere more than in Twelfth Night can a lovely moment suddenly leap...
...really twins, its love-making that is really leg-pulling, the play swarms with rather impractical jokes. Then there are Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew Aguecheek, those relentless cutups whom a later age would have relegated to the funny papers. They also have a way of dragging Malvolio-a great comic figure by virtue of being almost tragic-down to their own level...
...even with the noise and nonsense of Kilty's syphon squirting and the hilarious performance of Thayer David as Sir Andrew Aguecheck, the production has more substance than the usual farce. Donald Stevens is a thoughtful and detached clown. While Robert Fletcher's griping, prissy interpretation of Malvolio excludes all customary pity for his plight, it does not justify the brutal treatment he receives from the fetching chambermaid, Jan Farrand, and her licentious colleagues, Sir Tobey and Sir Andrew...
...leading Shakespearean actor of this time, Maurice Evans, plays the pompous Malvolio with his usual moist, resonant subtlety of speech. He also adopts a Cockney accent that undoubtedly makes the labored humor of the part more amusing than it really is. Into the pronunciation of the single word '"Run?" he manages to crowd an enormous amount of haughty comedy...