British Black and Asian Shakespeare Performance Database
Twelfth Night (1969): Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal Shakespeare Theatre
PRINCIPAL CAST: Brenda Bruce (Maria); Judi Dench (Viola); Bill Fraser (Sir Andrew Aguecheek); Lisa Harrow (Olivia); Emrys James (Feste); Donald Sinden (Malvolio); Charles Thomas (Orsino).
Press night for this production took place on 21 August 1969.
"Upon a memory of rush-strewn floors and rush-lit galleries, Christopher Morley's designs fantasticate a skeletal Riviera of sun-streaked reed lattices, wicker garden furniture and parasols. By itshalf-lights and shades, a lotus-eating Duke and Countess embroider loving daydreams into which break the fleshly twins from the sea, Sebastian and Viola." ~ Ronald Bryden, "In Illyrian neverland", The Observer Review, 24 August 1969
"The opening is funereal. The brooding, distraught Duke (Charles Thomas, essaying Hamlet) yearns for the unattainable Olivia (a pale young actress, Lisa Harrow), who, in turn, is in deep mourning for her father and brother. Viola (Judi Dench, charming and modest) presumes her brother drowned. The production never recovers from this solemn beginning." ~ Frank Marcus, "Raining all the time", Sunday Telegraph, 24 August 1969
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- British Black and Asian Shakespeare Database by the University of Warwick, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council 2012-2015, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. See full copyright statement.