In 1928, she appeared at the Old Vic Theatre in a season of plays directed by Andrew Leigh that included Hamlet, The School for Scandal, King Lear as Cordelia, The Merchant of Venice, and Everyman. She played the title role in Hedda Gabler in 1931.Brown, Ivor. "Hedda Gabler", The Manchester Guardian, 18 March 1931, p. 10 In 1932, she played the dual role of Viola/Cesario in Twelfth Night at the New Theatre, directed by Robert Atkins, and appeared in Strange Orchestra by Rodney Ackland, directed by John Gielgud at St. Martin's Theatre.Mullin, Michael. Design by Motley, Associated University Presse (1996), p. 217, Forbes-Robertson was sometimes seen as an intellectual rather than a highly dramatic actress: in The Manchester Guardian Ivor Brown called her Hedda Gabler "a beautiful miniature". On the other hand, St John Ervine in The Observer wrote that he had "never witnessed anything so beautiful as Miss Forbes-Robertson's performance" as the heroine of Romeo and Juliet;Ervine, St John. "At the Play" The Observer, 19 December 1926, p. 13 and in Twelfth Night, Brown said of her performance as Viola/Cesario, "her complete absorption in romance is so simple, so 'unactressy' as to open up the play anew."Brown, Ivor. "The Week's Theatres", The Observer, 29 May 1932, p. 15
