SOURCE: A review of Twelfth Night in The Independent, May 27, 1994.

No one can work an audience better than Desmond Barrit: he is to engaging camp what a butter mountain is to butter. Whether as Toad in Wind in the Willows or as Brazen in The Recruiting Officer, this gifted, corpulent comedian has the knack of totally winning you round to characters who would otherwise be objectionable. Is this a talent, though, you would wish to see applied to Malvolio, the killjoy steward in Twelfth Night? If the first night audience for Ian Judge's tourist-friendly production is anything to go by, the answer is an overwhelming yes. This, then, is a minority report.

Barrit is, of course, very, very funny. With a mournful Welsh lilt and feeble strands of hair forced, kicking and screaming, across his bald pate, this Malvolio perambulates his massive circumference about in a parade of...