A FAMILIAR face to theatre audiences in the dale is hitting the road in the coming weeks and months with a new one-man show.
Gordon Duffy-McGhie will perform writer Tim Crouch’s I Malvolio in a tour that takes in Cotherstone next month and continues until June at venues across the region.
Mr Duffy-McGhie is currently on stage in the Castle Players’ production of JB Priestley’s When We Are Married, in which he plays the photographer Henry Ormonroyd.
I, Malvolio explores the character of Malvolio, the pompous man servant to Olivia in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.
His priggish, self righteous attitude has earned him the wrath of his companions, who have played a cruel trick on him, making him believe that Olivia is in love with him.
When Malvolio confronts a startled Olivia, smiling profusely and wearing little but his infamous “yellow stockings and cross-garters” he is taken for a madman and locked up.
Mr Duffy-McGhie said: “Crouch’s irreverent, and hilarious backstage exposè picks up where Shakespeare left off.
“Crouch’s Malvolio, dressed only in his stained long-johns, is now hell-bent on revenge and what follows is a modern-day mash-up of stand-up comedy and blunt Shakespearean verse.
“So, if you’ve ever dropped a piece of litter or been insulted, or fallen in love with the wrong person, this production is an absolute must.”
Among the dates so far confirmed are performances at Cotherstone Village Hall on Friday, February 22, and the Scarth Hall, Staindrop, on Saturday March 9.
Mr Duffy-McGhie is a professional actor and mime artist, as well founding the Perfect Fools theatre company a decade ago.
Since then, he has created three shows – adaptations of novels by Franz Kafka, Mark Twain and Mikhail Bulgakov.
