SOURCE: "Twelfth Night: Stratford-Upon-Avon," in Plays & Players, No. 358, July, 1983, pp. 20-1.

After six years with the RSC John Caird, one of its four resident directors has staged his first major production in the main Stratford house; and it is surely a good augury for the future that this is an all-round success in an older Avonside tradition. No gimmicky sound scores, fancy dress or constructivist sets: not a hint of agitprop or alienation; no gabbling or garbling of the text; no patronising of the characters in the play. Here be, in profusion, clear voices, lush feelings, rich sunsets, starry skies, storm light, moonlight, and the light of true Shakespearian romance. Everything happens near the sea where it all started, whose murmur we sometimes hear, and whose imminence we sense. A rocky path winds down from a mid-stage horizon to the shelter of a vast autumnal box-tree whose tangled...