Tim Crouch’s fresh, funny, poignant and thought-provoking I, Malvolio is his finest work to date. Photo: Matthew Andrews

Theatre
I, Malvolio
St James Cavalier

Far from yellow stockings, pompous strutting and promises of love mixed with delusions of grandeur, Illyrian Steward Malvolio found himself centre stage on his own soap box at St James Cavalier last week.

Solo performances have the potential to go either incredibly well, or to fall really flat, and I’m glad to say that actor and writer Tim Crouch’s performance of his piece of performance art aimed at teenagers, I, Malvolio, unfolded in splendid form.

Crouch is, of course, an old hand at this, having first written and performed the piece in 2010, but the beauty of the piece lies in the fact that it maintains its freshness as a theatrical experience precisely because it actually is about theatrical experience and our responses and responsibilities as an audience.

The reason why it works so well with a teenage audience is that it doesn’t pander to the ordinary expectations that people have for youth theatre, but it panders to both to their sense of humour and their sense of humanity.

And this is the same reason for which it is also so very well received by an adult audience – proving that good theatre need not be pigeonholed into age categories at all. Indeed, the majority of the audience on the Sunday show last weekend was composed of adults, all of whom enjoyed the spectacle given by Crouch. (I love the ring this surname has – ever since Rowling made Barty Crouch popular, I get the feeling that anybody who is crouch-y can be a tad grouchy – and when you think about it, Barty Crouch Sr does have some very Malvolio-like characteristics.)

As a reworking of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, it is written and presented from the perspective of Lady Olivia’s steward, Malvolio, who means no harm and wants no evil, despite his name.

His downfall is, to quote McEwan, “wanting the world to be just so”. This is revealed to the audience via a veritable barrage of words – a diatribe which is part Shakespearean and part contemporary-street – all stemming from the basic plot device of one crumpled letter – litter – and planted evidence. A failed public hanging and a good kicking also ensued – as Malvolio egged his audience to ridicule him the way they want to – for enjoyment.

Need there be a fool? Need one laugh and jeer at another to enjoy themselves?

The piece evolved as a tragicomedy, blending moments of hilarity with moments of high-dudgeon, as the peeved and wronged Malvolio, thirsting for revenge, in torn and filthy undergarments, rages against Sir Toby Belch and his cronies for having made a fool of him, while he questions the plausibility of Shakespeare’s plot and its unfavourable stance towards him, through the injustices committed by others less virtuous and less deserving.

Blending the script with improvisation stemming from audience response, heckling the audience and getting heckled back, made for a very entertaining piece (thanks also to one rather irate Italian lady), which was equally critical of both audiences and playwrights for favouring certain themes and plots and certain characters over others. Ultimately, it posits the question: need there be a fool? Need one laugh and jeer at another to enjoy themselves?

The clever part was that these questions were asked almost directly as the audience was recovering from its latest bout of laughter and the deconstruction of the original play became a vehicle for Malvolio’s lament: as he washed off his grimy face and changed out of his outlandish and embarrassing garb into the uniform of respectability and order which he so firmly believes in.

Crouch’s performance was dynamic, fast-paced and effortless – making I, Malvolio one of this season’s highlights. Come back Crouch – Malta needs you.