NON-STOP SHAKESPEARE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 126, 30 May 1934, Page 6

NON-STOP SHAKESPEARE.

"HAMLET" WITHOUT CUTS,

(By NELLE M. SCAN LAN.)

Shakespeare's birthday was celebrated both in London and at the bard's own Stratford-on - Avon. The sun shone at St rat ford-on-Avon, as the great gathering paid its to whom Viscountess Snowden termed "the greatest citizen of Stratford, the greatest poet of England, and the greatest dramatist of the world." Flags of every nation were unfurled, but the Nazi flag stuck at first, as though in doubt, as someone remarked, as to whether Shakespeare was of pu,re Aryan stock before paying ite full tribute. -It was a gay pioccssion, from the Eastern splendour of some of the diplomats to the sombre black shirts of the British Fascists. The chief toast was "The Immortal Memory." Afterwards, at the Memorial Theatre, "Love's Labour Lost" was staged by the players.

London was not far behind in paying its tribute. "Hamlet" in its entirety was played at Sadler's Wells. The house was booked out long ago, but Mis.s Lilian Baylis, true to her tradition, refused to penalise the poor, and the upper circle seats were for those Who had more time than money. The play began at 1.30 p.m. and lasted till *o.3o—five hours of Shakespeare, with only one interval of twenty minutes. There were no cuts in the text. It was played from the Temple edition, which is a reasonable blending of the Second Quarto (L 004) and "the first folio (1y023). Hamlet was played by Ernest Milton. It wa.s a prodigious undertaking, and magnificently rendered. Ernest Milton has a wide range of vocal colour, and his interpretation of the mad and moody Prince was beautifully poised. Sybil Tliorndike played tho Queen, and Marie Ney, the New Zealand actress, gave an Ophelia that matched in beauty of diction and the exquisite quality of her acting the high standard of Mi!ton's Hamlet.

In the early morning the queue began to form for those unbooked scats. It was a young audience largely, and it is encouraging to see the enthusiasm of the moderns, who are •so often maligned, for this great event. Soon all the little scats were hired out, and by ten o'clock the new arrivals were obliged to stand. Some read, some talked, others waited in silence. Before noon the queue was winding its endless length around the whole theatre. Many could not obtain a scat at all, and paid to stand. They had stood outside for several hours, and were content to stand inside for another five hours. Among them I saw many Indian students, slim, dark young men, very earnest. I heard groups conversing in German, others in French. Many regard Shakespeare as a duty rather than a.s a pleasure, but these were voluntary pilgrims. These young men and women, mostly under thirty, had given up a whole day; they had no lunch, but ate food from paper bags or munched an apple.

The play was produced by Ben Greet, who was himself the Grave-digger. The music was English 10th century, and anonymous. At the end of the play this audience, which you would have expected to be so weary, lingered on, demanding curtain after curtain. Hamlet made his brief speech. Mies Lilian Baylis, in her doctor's robes, made another. Ben Greet, his snow-white hair marking out the veteran, ■must say his few words. But 6till the audience would not go.

Afterwards, outside the stage door, I saw hundreds of them crowded, waiting to sec the players depart, and a dozen students were ready with autograph hook and pencil to catch the stars as they departed, and have a name on record to mark this great occasion. After such a spectacle, who will say that the theatre is dead? That the men and women of this generation have no mind above the cinema?