I Malvolio reviews

I, Malvolio is incredibly funny, utterly heart-breaking, deeply sophisticated, beguilingly simple, hugely compassionate, completely uncompromising and incredibly intricate. All at the same time. — Andrew Haydon, Postcards from the Gods

There are repeated refrains and a rather tiresome sight gag involving leopard-print underpants. — Fiona Sturges, The Independent

…a by turns hysterical and harrowing study of thwarted dignity, cruelty, bullying, self-hatred and metatheatrical revenge. — Bella Todd, The Guardian

Pure Magic — Total Theatre

Crouch’s Malvolio is a pompous ass who falls somewhere between the buffoonery of Boris Johnson, the absurdism of Vic Reeves and the misguided self-importance of the late Princess Diana’s former butler Paul Burrell.
Like them, Malvolio plays his part seemingly all too well, only to fall victim to his own misfortune by not recognising that he’s actually a little bit rubbish as what he does. In a deadpan comic turn, this is something Crouch himself could never be accused of. — Neil Cooper, Herald Scotland

This is a treasure, an hour to remember and to chase round its tour….Immaculate, moving, funny, wise. — Libby Purves, The Times

…terrific skill and passion…

Crouch’s 60-minute I, Malvolio was originally created, along with three other similar plays, as a way of introducing restless teenage audiences to Shakespeare; but there’s nothing anything less than fully adult about this searing deconstruction of the conflict between Malvolio and – well, who?

Not only the other characters, it seems, but us, the audience of relentless good-time boys and girls, laughing at Malvolio’s humiliation, mocking the brief hope of love he enjoys, and seeking amusement in a decadent, cross-dressing, make-believe art-form that Mavolio, like any good Puritan, roundly despises. — Joyce McMillan, The Scotsman