SOURCE: A review of Twelfth Night in Shakespeare Quarterly, Vol. 34, No. 4, Winter, 1983, pp. 454-55

John Caird's reading of Twelfth Night was extremely serious, especially in interpreting the lovers. Instead of quoting the usual tedious contemporary parallels and literary criticism, the program printed fourteen of the Sonnets, including sonnet 20, about the "master-mistress of my passion." Orsino spoke his first scene slowly and weightily; his obsession with Olivia might have seemed an affectation to his lethargic courtiers, but was real enough to him. So was Olivia's grief for her brother, although this did not prevent her from accepting with a good grace Feste's proof that she was a fool to mourn for her brother's soul being in heaven, a point neatly underlined when she put on his fool's cap and he her mourning veil.

Viola was distracted with grief for her brother, but a warm light came up on her...