It was Derek Jacobi’s tender and tragic Cyrano who first made me cry in a theatre. But in Shakespeare’s comedy his austere Malvolio is motivated much more by a yearning for status than the possibility of love.
So despite wonderful support from Victoria Hamilton’s Viola, from the little-and-large double act between Guy Henry’s Aguecheek and Ron Cook’s Belch, from Samantha Spiro’s life-affirming Maria and Indira Varma’s accessible Olivia, Jacobi’s Malvolio moves you to more laughter just when you want Michael Grandage’s stellar-cast, modern-dress production to move you to tears.
