5 JUNE 1953, Page 11

I KNOW about the Greeks, the inn-yards, the masques at

Ludlow and all that, but I still feel that the place for the theatre is indoors. During twenty-one years, bravely fighting such blind prejudice and the London summer, Robert Atkins has achieved some happy moments in Regent's Park. Unhappily the performance to mark this coming-of-age had to be held in the large circus-tent which has often saved the audience from the worst horrors of summer evenings in the open. It is not easy to keep up, against a canvas background, the enchantments designed to be framed by clipped hedges and a greensward, especially with a Sir Toby (Robert Atkins) and a Malvolio (Tristan Rawson) determined to play smaller instead of larger than life. The production has one virtue which 1 take to be the result of working in the open. Every word can be heard, and you cannot always say that of even the most luxuriant productions within four walls. There is also a Feste (Trefor. Jones) who can sing, a change from the reedy croakings of many another inharmonious