SOURCE: Carnegy, Patrick. Review of All's Well That Ends Well. Spectator 293, no. 9151 (27 December 2003): 42-3.

In the following review, Carnegy lauds director Gregory Doran's 2003 production of All's Well That Ends Well at the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, highlighting outstanding performances by Judi Dench as the Countess of Roussillon and Guy Henry as Parolles.

You know at once from the title that nothing's going to end well, and nor has it for this, the perhaps least loved of Shakespeare's comedies. There's a permafrost at the heart of the story of the girl who ensnares an unlovely husband, is justly rejected, and after both have undergone unpleasant trials is reunited with him, leaving them to face as bleak a life together as you could imagine.

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