Shakespearean Criticism

Twelfth Night (Vol. 26) | Robert Speaight (review date Autumn 1960)

Robert Speaight (review date Autumn 1960)

SOURCE: A review of Twelfth Night in Shakespeare Quarterly, Vol. XI, No. 4, Autumn, 1960, pp. 449-51.

Twelfth Night was the first of the productions that I saw this year, and on it I began to form the general impressions that I am recording here. I had seen the production two years ago, when it left me divided between delight and dissatisfaction. Mr. Hall, as it seemed to me, had started off with a good idea and had then gone some way to spoil it. All those cavaliers grouped around Orsino in a panelled hall straight out of Nash's English Mansions—this announced a Twelfth Night very much to my taste. And it is still a lovely thing to look upon, thanks in great part to Miss de Nobili's designs—a rich symphony in russet. But Mr. Hall, as usual, had plenty of surprises up his sleeve. The first was Miss Tutin. Not that one ever imagined she would be anything but an exquisite Viola,...

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