is finished and polished, to all pomposity, to every ready-made solution
in the sphere of thought and world outlook 8 .
Stallybrass and White describe Bakhtin’s conception of festive comedy as ‘optimistic
utopianism’ and criticise its failure to acknowledge that comedy can be used potentially in
support of the dominant culture and in support of authoritarianism 9 . Writing in the Stalinist era,
Bakhtin is eager to suggest folk culture and the carnivalesque as a means of resistance to
authoritarianism; however, in discussing a Twelfth Night that has a lesbian character as the
object of the comic gulling, we must be mindful that the ideology of the festive comedy can
potentially support, rather than challenge, hegemony. The gulling of Malvolia in the National
Theatre’s 2017 production is shocking to behold. Malvolia is still dressed in her yellow costume
that she donned to serenade Olivia in burlesque style in Act 3 scene 4. The effect of dressing
up and singing was at once preposterous, comic and touching – that Malvolia should be so
willing to go out on a limb for the person she loves. Now she is seated on a stool, in a burlesque
costume that exaggerates her vulnerability, with her hands tied in front of her and a black
blindfold representing the darkness of the ‘dark house’. It makes her entirely isolated and
disadvantaged, and perhaps the enforced incarceration and blindfolding is more shocking
when the character without agency is female than if both characters were male. The unequal
power relations are intensified. The comic tones to be had from Feste pretending to be Sir
Topaz by assuming a Glaswegian accent are muted because of the centre-stage image of this
vulnerable and traumatised female prisoner. Having a priest who believes he can lecture a
lesbian into sanity (‘Out, hyperbolical fiend! how vexest thou this man! talkest thou nothing but
of ladies?’ 10 ) recalls the practice of conversion therapy as performed by the so-called ex-gay
movement 11 . It is unclear whether this is an intended consequence of the staging, but as Greig
explains,
My fear was that if I was going to be playing it as either intersex or lesbian,
for that character to be so abused means to be part of agreeing that abusing
someone who is trying to express their innermost desires is acceptable.
12
Ibid., 3.
Peter, Stallybrass, and Allon, White, The Politics and Poetics of Transgression, (New York: Cornell
Ithaca Press, 1986).
10 Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Or What You Will, 4.2.26-7
11 The self-styled “ex-gay” movement includes Love In Action, Homosexuals Anonymous, and the
Catholic organisation, Courage International.
12 ‘Tamsin Greig on Twelfth Night’ [Video], National Theatre Discover, 30 March 2017,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1fmZ6jHqqI
8
9
3