SOURCE: Wolf, Matt. Review of All's Well That Ends Well. Variety 393, no. 6 (22 December 2003): 55-6.

In the following review, Wolf suggests that director Gregory Doran's 2003 Royal Shakespeare Company production of All's Well That Ends Well at the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon was held together by a spectacular Judi Dench in the role of the Countess of Roussillon.

Judi Dench comes out alone, briefly, at the start of the new Royal Shakespeare Co. production of All's Well That Ends Well, and a good thing, too: It's not easy looking anywhere else when Dame Judi is on stage. On this occasion, the collective gaze has been especially keen, since Gregory Doran's lively, audience-grabbing production marks Dench's return for the first time in 24 years to Stratford, where the actress has had abundant triumphs in a professional career spanning 46 years.

Just turned 69, Dench has reached the point in a classical actress's life where...