Malvolio's Fantasy

Saturday 03 February - By Olivia Laughton for The Student

‘Malleable, malevolent and mad’, Malvolio’s Fantasy innovatively reconstructs Shakespeare’s classic tale of love and confusion into a joyous yet thought-provoking narrative, written by Zuza Soltykowska and Isabella Olsen-Barone.

Washed upon the shores of Illyria, the young Viola (Menna Morris) disguises her identity with a fabulous moustache, joining the court of the melancholic yet serene Lady Olivia (Victoria Ge). Bound by their tragedies, musical expressions, and curiously enough, feminine appreciation of scented candles, they fall in love. Turning from Shakespeare’s traditional text, there is no delay here in waiting for a heteronormative resolution to their desires as they declare their love outright.

Orchestrating a plan against the constraints of class and gender, they arrange for Malvolio (Grace Read) to swap places with Viola and win the Duke Orsino’s heart. The suave Orsino falls for Malvolio’s loquacious charms, whilst in turn Malvolio’s insatiable desire for power leads to satisfying resolutions of requited love, without Shakespeare’s seventeenth century’s sexual taboos.

The complex and interwoven themes of gender, class and identity are brazenly interjected by a hugely comedic and – well – drunk, Toby Belch (Alba McGowan). A thick Scots accent, tartan hat and several alcoholic beverages spilt across the stage, his drunken farce caused shrieks of laughter throughout the theatre. The fourth wall well and truly shattered, once he’d caused enough chaos he sat among the audience, complaining about the speed of the set changes! Other moments of laughter came in the promiscuous relations of a charmingly baffled Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Lucien Ngai) and maid Carmen (Tatiana Kacmarska), as well as through the running motifs of candles, moustaches and plenty of wordplay and wit. As promoted on their Instagram (@malvoliosfantasy_bedfest), the ‘Outs’ of ‘heteronormativity’, ‘being forced to deny your dreams of dukedom’ and ‘yellow socks’ were well and truly banished, in a wholesome and heart-warming production.

Musical, witty and charming, Malvolio’s Fantasy left the audience with an enduring sense of the beautiful nature of loving, and doing so with pride.