Shakespeare's 450th birthday marked by Abbey production of Twelfth Night

The Abbey has marked William Shakespeare’s 450th birthday by producing Twelfth Night, says Pádraic Killeen.

HAD he not died, at the age of 52, William Shakespeare would be an improbable 450 years old today. But he has lived on in his plays. His work remains vital, his poetic understanding of human nature as relevant today as it was in the Elizabethan era. This is true of the Abbey Theatre’s new production of Twelfth Night, Shakespeare’s most provocative comedy. Named after the festive ‘twelfth night’ of Christmas, when a brief disposition was granted for excess, disorder, and devilment, the play is a screwball wonder of mistaken identities, gender-crossing, and boozy conspiring. It has a seemingly peripheral character who is actually one of the greatest in Shakespeare’s eclectic bestiary. Though the play centres on the muddled romances of two couples, Lady Olivia and Sebastian, and Viola and Duke Orsino, it is the outcast Malvolio, Olivia’s prudish and fastidious steward, who fascinates audiences.

Malvolio is played by one of Ireland’s most admired actors, Mark O’Halloran. Malvolio is the victim of a practical joke, engineered by his arch-nemesis, Sir Toby Belch (played by Nick Dunning). Sickened by Malvolio’s censure, Sir Toby and his debauched friends cook up a scheme to make the steward believe that Olivia (Natalie Radmall-Quirke) is in love with him. It all reduces Malvolio to a silly, sordid, and sorry state.