The Whirligig of Time
★★★★★ Malvolio Often Appears Innocent
theSpace @ Niddry Street (Venue 9): Fri 2 – Sat 17 Aug 2024
Review by Rebecca Mahar
Malevolent, malicious, malcontent: Malvolio. But is he? In a tour-de-force by solo actor Robin Leetham, Tortive Theatre’s The Whirligig of Time questions the traditional perception of Malvolio as the antagonist of Twelfth Night, and allows him to tell his version of the story.
There’s no real villain in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, and snooty steward Malvolio is often thrust into that role to fill a gap. He is punished for the crimes of pomposity, loyalty to his mistress Lady Olivia, and wishing to keep an orderly house
Rob Leetham as Malvolio. Pic: Ruthie Philip-Smith
The motley crew of Sirs Toby Belch and Andrew Aguecheek, Olivia’s gentlewoman Maria, and Feste the Fool, concoct a plan to make Malvolio believe Olivia is in love with him.
Not content to humiliate Malvolio in front of his mistress, they then pretend that he has gone mad, lock him in a dark room, and further torment him. At the end of the play when all is revealed, including Olivia’s betrothal to a duke, Malvolio swears revenge “on the whole pack of you”.
Which is where playwright Richard Curnow picks up in The Whirligig of Time. six weeks on from the events of Twelfth Night, after a stint in the IHBG (Illyrian Home For Bewildered Gentlemen) and a failed bout of anger management therapy, Malvolio relates the events of Shakespeare’s play from his point of view.
scintillating with repressed energy
Whirligig expands on the steward’s character, relating details about his past, from his beginnings as a poor servant’s bastard under the thumb of Miss Bella (it’s unclear whether she is his nurse or simply another servant in the house where his mother worked, but she’s best known as “the cabbage woman”), to his rise through service to the position of steward to Olivia’s father, and how he laboured to lay his claim to respectability.
Leetham is extraordinary as Malvolio, under the direction of Oliver Brooks. He is scintillating with repressed energy as he compulsively tidies props after using them and paces the edges of the stage like a cage.
Rob Leetham as Malvolio. Unbuttoned. Pic: Ruthie Philip-Smith
The play is one long monologue and as it progresses, the energy held in by Leetham’s smart tweed jacket starts to break free along with Malvolio’s frustration, anger and pain, as he sheds layers – both literal and defensive – to reveal the frayed threads of his mind and struggle to cope with what his life means now.
Bursts of rage and despair overcome the steward’s desperate desire for order, overcome by his own humanity and desire, just once, to be loved.
Like the waves that crash and whisper outside Malvolio’s tower, Leetham’s performance is beguiling and ineffable in its pull. Some prior knowledge of Twelfth Night is required to get the most out of Whirligig, but it will be compelling even without, as Leetham struts and frets his hour (or in this case, forty minutes) upon the stage.
Running time: 40 minutes (no interval)
theSpace @ Niddry Street (Upper Theatre), Niddry Street, EH1 1TH (Venue 9)
Friday 2 – Saturday 17 August 2024
Fri 2 – Sat 10: 3.05pm; Mon 12 – Sat 17: 3.05pm.
Details and tickets at: Book here
Website: www.tortivetheatre.com
Facebook: @TortiveTheatre
Instagram: @ tortivetheatre
X: @TortiveTheatre
Rob Leetham as Malvolio. Unbuttoning. Pic: Ruthie Philip-Smith
ENDS
