Pencil, ink and watercolour caricature by Gilbert Sommerlad (1904-1976) of William Devlin as Antonio in Twelfth Night, Old Vic Company, 1950.

Gilbert Sommerlad (1904–1976), a professional pianist and violinist, began his career in Brighton as an accompanist at local cinemas and theatres, and in 1936 moved to the recently built New Theatre at Oxford, where his brother Roy, also a musician, was already working. Gilbert Sommerlad was an orchestral violinist and rehearsal pianist at the New Theatre for over 40 years and, when not required in the orchestra pit, he occupied himself by sketching the performers, becoming well known in the profession as a caricaturist. His sketches, a total of 441, many signed by their subjects, were mounted in six albums which his son donated to the V&A in 2001.

The Old Vic company’s production of Twelfth Night visited Oxford in October 1950, prior to its staging in London. The Old Vic theatre had suffered bomb damage in 1941 and remained derelict until 1950 when it was restored in time for the 1951 Festival of Britain. It reopened on 14 November with a gala performance of the Twelfth Night seen by Sommerlad. Peggy Ashcroft played Viola with Roger Livesey as Sir Toby, Alec Clunes as Orsino and Paul Rogers as Malvolio.

William Devlin (1911-1987) had a long stage and screen career and was noted for Shakespearean roles, particularly King Lear which he first played in 1934, when he was only 22. Though cast in a minor role in Twelfth Night, he still made an impression. Audrey Williamson, recalling the production in her book Old Vic Drama 2 (Rockliff, 1957), described the performance as ‘superb’ and wrote that Devlin ‘gave an authentic “lift”, character and sonority to every scene in which he appeared’.