"KING LEAR."

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19624, 21 May 1929, Page 14

"KING LEAR."

A GRIM TRAGEDY. MR ALLAN WILKIE'S SUCCESS. Treacher;-, cruelty, hate, sorrow, and madness—these are the passions thai run unleashed in that most grim, mosttragic, of a! 3 the Shakespearean plays. "King Lear," which the Allan Wilkie Company presented in the Theatre Royal la,st evening. So easy is it in a work of this kind, permeated from beginning to end with sadness —there is even sadness in the- fooling of the fool—to come crashing down from the pinnacle of climax into vulgar bathos, that it is a dangerous play to essay, but last night was shown the hand of long experience and thorough training, and when the curtain fell on the last act the audience were unstinted in their applause. This is a play that must stand or fall by the manner in which it is acted more than anything else, such as s'enery and colour, and indeed the riot of emotions demands a more than merely theatrical mode of expression. The play must be lived, not acted. Cau one merely act these fearful events where "love cools, friendship falls off, brothers divide: iu cities, mutinies; in countries, discord; in palaces, treason; ■md the bond cracked between son and father. . . . There's son against father. . . Father against I'hilcl. . . . Machinations,- hollowness, treachery, and all ruinous disorder. . . .*'' The tragedy of "King Lear" is so much the more poignant because tin- terrible happenings arise in the first place from such a pitiful incident. Who but a foolish old dotard would have banished his best loved daughter because she, unlike her two sisters, would make no profession of her filial love —who "could not heave her heart into her mouth?" It was a dramatic scene, ami Mr Allan Wilkie, as the white bearded old king, made the best of it; and indeed he made, a very vivid and dramatic part of it all through. There were moments when he trod on thin ground in the denouncement of his daughter Eegan, but a break here could easily have been condonsd, for his task was no easy one. The tragic climax can be sensed in each act, and the atmosphere is well sustained. Miss HunterWatts made of Cordelia, the youngest daughter, a character whose beauty shone in startling contrast with the evil natures of her two unnatural sisters, Goncril and Regan, and if her piteous doom brought no emotion to the audience they were a stony lot. The scene on the heath where Edgar, the -elder son of Gloucester, affects madness, was a singular piece of work, and here Mr Dennis Barry was excellent. With the elements at war with one another the scene was a fitting one for stormy souls to foregather, and it was inevitable that Lear, accompanied by his faithful fool, and the disguised Kent must appear to bear company to poor crazed Tom, there to allow his own wits freedom to wander. Mr William L-ockhart's portrayal of the Earl of Gloucester was as admirable a study as one could hope for. The old Earl's personality stood prominently out, and the dastardly act that robbed him of his eyes, made of him a character that /was - truly great, and lovable. Equally successful were Miss Lorna Forbes, as Goneril, and Miss Marjorie Carr, as Regan, and they invested a rieh degree of wickedness into their roles. Mr Milton Sands, too, as .the Duke of Cornwell, who executed the fiendish deed upon Gloucester, and Mr Alexander Marsh, as Edmund, the illegitimate son of Gloucester, also gave very real representations of their parts, while Mr Arthur Kean.c, as the Fool. was anothvr outstanding figure. It has been s£id that to play King Lear properly the actor must really die in the last scene. That perhaps, ia too much to ask of any actor, but it is-riot: difficult, to understand that here there must be no anti-climax,' or the' play -ir ruined.- The scene is i so-poignant, so pitiful, and so dramatic' that the actor must throw his whole soul into his work if ha m« riot die. One can say that Mr Wilkie did that last-night. Indeed, when the company- came, before the curtain it could be 'seen that the play had been a trying one for all the principals.

"THE TEMPEST" TO-NIGHT. To-night, Mr Wilkie presents that delightful confedy "The Tempest," Shakespeare s last work, and written in .Vh human of beautiful poetry and faith m human naturl besides containing some of his most precious character studies. In -it we have the half-monster Csliban, one of the-most bizarre personages that was eve*■ P ut on stasre Mr Wilk e is said to-give a great Udy of this hairy creature. Miss HunterWatts plays Miranda, Mr Alexander Marsh ■to Prospero. and Mr Dennis Barry has the r'le of the lover v Ferdinand Mr John Cairns and Mr Arthur Keane are m charge of tne leaven of comedy in the, p.ece, wtach is supplied in good measure by the cliarae tersthev portray, Stephano, the drunken butler, and Trinculo his companion jester. To-morrow, Mr Wilkie plays: his last matinee . this wason, "The Taming of the Shrew." _____^____