‘That leaves Timothy Walker whose Malvolio is the star of the production. He and Rylance’s Olivia demonstrate that she runs a great aristocratic house where rank and status are all important.
Walker’s Malvolio presides over these people like a grand inquisitor. The walk, the voice, the expression of mask-like affability and self importance, suggest a half-domesticated Roman God. Walker’s Malvolio performs a brilliant ballet of fantasising self-love. Just as he teeters at the very edge of self control, Walker is working at the outer rim of comedy where laughter becomes mixed with pity. It is a truly Elizabethan performance. The text is used as public address and private behaviour. Walker can address the audience, but without working it like a music-hall performer; and he shows just how much psychological detail can be released in this extraordinary space. Perhaps Shakespeare is our contemporary after all’
The Sunday Times