SOURCE: A review of Twelfth Night in Independent on Sunday, May 29, 1994.

With its cute Warwickshire street scenes (John Gunter) and lush orchestral underpinning (Nigel Hess), Ian Judge's production of Twelfth Night has all the signs of a number one tourist attraction. It also overflows with fresh and truthful detail—beginning, if you please, with a comic Orsino (Clive Wood) whose pretended grand passion collapses in ruins once he meets Viola and experiences the real thing. No wonder, given Emma Fielding's performance, which combines the high romance of a bereaved castaway with a commanding comic attack—as in her peremptory treatment of Olivia (Haydn Gwynne) before submissively modulating into the praise speech.

Where you most expect comedy there are fewer laughs than usual. Neither Bille Browne's ostrich-like Aguecheek nor Tony Britton's over-gentlemanly Toby add much to these outlines, and their drunken party consists of stiffly rehearsed routines with not...