SOURCE: Wolf, Matt. “Troilus and Cressida.” Variety (22-28 March 1999): 47.

In the following review, Wolf praises Trevor Nunn's 1999 National Theatre staging of Troilus and Cressida, contending that Nunn “yanks us … right inside this play's singularly hellish heart.”

Cressida (Sophie Okonedo) spins slowly—and woundingly—at the end of Trevor Nunn's new staging of Troilus and Cressida, but this bruising play's damaged heroine isn't the only one left reeling at the close of a nearly four-hour production. The first of six shows at the National this year (Candide is next) to incorporate a resident ensemble, this Troilus is a reminder not only of the dark, savage power of this most contemporary of Shakespeare plays but, importantly, of the no less fierce lucidity of a director who—on form—remains a virtually matchless classicist.

Is Nunn's Troilus perfect? Not quite—it misses the nerve-jangling glimpse into the abyss achieved by Howard...