SOURCE: A review of Twelfth Night in The New Stateman & Nation, Vol. XL, No. 1029, November 25, 1950, pp. 498, 500.

The best criticism I have heard of Mr. Hugh Hunt's production of Twelfth Night—with which the Old Vic make a welcome return to their old home in the Waterloo Road—was contained in a remark by a friend who listened to a description of it and then said: "I see, in other words, it managed to be both arty and hearty." It is just that. Its best bits are the hearty bits, centred round a fine scarlet-faced, broad-bottomed, big-bellied, rasping Roger Livesey as Sir Toby. Its worst bits are the arty framework which the producer has thought fit to provide. There are the simpering attendants on Olivia. There is a chorus of boys in beards and girls in urchin cuts, who round off each scene with a skip of dancing, lots...