SOURCE: "Twelfth Night without Pathos," in The Times, London, June 17, 1966, p. 8.

Clifford Williams, who directed the Royal Shakespeare's vastly successful Comedy of Errors has now tackled Twelfth Night on similar lines, presenting it as a hard-edged almost Italianate comedy firmly steeled against pathos and poetry.

This may seem a perverse style to adopt for one of the most musical of the comedies, but at least it is carried through consistently. Sally Jacobs's set establishes the tone exactly: a simple facade of four up-stage arches, and, above them, a musicians' gallery whose occupants behave more like a town band than a courtly ensemble. This is no atmosphere for voluptuous fancy; and, sure enough, Orsino (Alan Howard) enters the first scene at a run and conducts his campaign against Olivia's affections more in a military than romantic spirit.

As a whole, the production is distinguished by its cleanness of line...