Word: malvolios
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...words: 'Give me excess of it.' And Shakespeare has filled his text with references to songs. Of course we can't have singing without dancing too. I'll advertise my version as 'a music and dance extravaganza of Twelfth Night.' [Webster's Dictionary defines 'extravaganza' as something "wildly irregular."] Malvolio has a phrase in the play, "the fools' zanies." I'll just interpret that as "the Fool's zanies" and create two new characters, a singing zany and a dancing zany, to accompany Feste the Fool; and the three of them will provide a running counterpoint throughout the show...
...hard time making a living, and his fine performance helps to keep the plaintive note running through the comic scenes (though it points up the fact that William S. Gilbert's Jack Point, constructed on the same basis, is a more interesting character than Feste). Richard Wordsworth (Malvolio), Joss Ackland (Sir Toby Belch), and the other comics play conventionally, with the down-the-line competence that distinguishes the Old Vic from American Shakespearean companies...
...that although Mr. Benthall puts his actors through all the burps and stumbles common in Shakespearean slapstick (or at least allows them a free hand in this respect), they never seem coarse or even very vigorous. The basis of the comic subplot is the duping of Malvolio, the puritanical steward, by a group of cheerful tosspots--a little joke which has occasionally struck critics as cruel, since Malvolio is at one point chained in a dungeon as a madman. Before Mr. Heeley's backcloth, under Mr. Benthall's guidance, it appears a mild, if merry, escapade, instinct with finesse...
...comic scenes are really hilarious; they did not strike me that way, but everyone around me at the theatre was laughing fit to kill. At any rate, Mr. Benthall has certainly made them pleasant enough, with not much help from Shakespeare except for Sir Toby's great line to Malvolio: "Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes...
...mannered or coy would be unreasonable. Illyria still keeps its Old World tempo, and the plot its tollgates. But the poetry dances in and out of the prankishness, the air is brushed with light, the carousing invokes no shudders and provides some laughs. Richard Wordsworth's Malvolio is grandly absurd in the letter scene, and in his yellow stockings and cross garters, really funny. Jane Downs's Olivia, Judi Dench's Maria, Dudley Jones's Feste, John Neville's Sir Andrew all bring something personal to their roles, and Barbara Jefford's Viola...