SOURCE: "A Note on a Production of Twelfth Night," in Shakespeare Survey: An Annual Survey of Shakespearian Study and Production, Vol. 8, 1955, pp. 69-73.

In the following essay, Marsh discusses his 1951 staging of Twelfth Night in the Antipodes, focusing on the elements of characterization and visual presentation as they relate to the tone of the play.

Each decade creates its own fashions in Shakespeare and only actors of distinction can survive them. The Shakespearian costumes of Macready's stage now 'date' almost as markedly as the crinoline itself. Is is not probable, moreover, that if we could look through the wrong end of our opera glasses at the Lyceum of the 1880's, the mannerisms of the lesser players would make us titter while Ellen Terry or Irving would still command our applause? In the portrait of Garrick as Lear the authentic look of madness in his eyes effaces the oddness...