There’s great clarity to Tom Littler’s bittersweet 1940s staging of Shakespeare’s comedy of romance and misunderstanding. Every emotion and every intention comes across fully, and there’s both a lovely late-career performance from 85-year-old Oliver Ford Davies as Malvolio, and an impressively nuanced Viola from Patricia Allison.
The casting of older actors in lead roles – Ford Davies is joined by a roguish Clive Francis as Sir Toby Belch and a spry Jane Asher as Maria – arguably adds to a lugubriousness in the pacing. There’s also a melancholy, autumnal undertow to the humour.
