A SHAKESPEARE RECORD

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 303, 16 September 1921, Page 8

A SHAKESPEARE RECORD

TEN MASTERPIECES IN THREE WEEKS.

(By

"Sylvius.”)

During his season m nuuiugton, which will conclude to-morrow evening, Mr. Allan Wilkie has established a unique record in Shakespearean production. During the last three weeks he has played more of the Bard’s plays than have ever been played in one season hero before. Mr. Wilkie has in several of the plays introduced scenes that are as a rule cut out because they make the time occupied in the performance too lon- but Mr. Wilkie, with his adaptable curtains, and bits of suggestive scenerv, has been able to curtail a great deal of the time usually occupied in setting scenes, and has given the public the benefit in a fuller playing edition than is the general wont. It is true have had more elaborate stage production as witness the lavish productions of the Musgrove .English Company oi some eighteen years ago, when As You Like It ” "Twelfth Night," and ' A Midsummer Night’s Dream” were very exquisitely presented, and later when Oscar Osclw presented "The Taming of the Shrew,” “Othello,” "The Merchant of Venice,” ete.-but elaborate production does not always spell good Shakospeaie. Indeed, the production miy become so elaborate that a good deal of the beauty and nobility of the Bal'd a music is IoM in the wonder of those stage arts tha are more or less mechanical. ru:-,. Mr Wilkie has demonstrated one thing before all eyes-that there are audiences for Shakespeare in New Zealand, ant as long as he is able to continue the production of the Bard’s works he intends to do so. Speaking to a Dominion reporter, Mr. Wilkie said that the lot of the independent touring manager or actor-manager was being made «>mewhnt difficult, owing to the uncertainty of . ing able to secure theatres. After nil. a theatre was necessary—unless town halls were made more where there was only one theatre in a town and that held by a firm interested in theatrical production, the P?s ltl ° n was one which caused some anxiety, csnnrinllv ns the expenses of travelling hirh. 'People did not reahse the risk a theatrical manager ran. After leaving-Wellington ntfxt whole of this large company have to be trans ported to Svdney by Ixmt and thence by rail to Adelaide, a journey which ran into several lumped pounds. I hen after Adelaide they were to proceed on to Perth bv steamer. Now, assuming th tason there was « bad one. a manager could lose ?. counle of thousand pounds in no time, as there was no great field for touring in the so that the whole time there was the worry, not only of not being able to secure theatres very far ahead, but the continuous risk that. Shakespeare might not be welcom , and losses might bo_ made But Air. Wilkie has a stout belief m Shakespeare, and he eavs: "Give mo the theatres, and 5. fear nothing.” it is to be hoped that ho will bo able always to secure theatres, that the higher drama may receive its due, and Air. Wilkie may attain his dearest wish, viz., to produce all thirty-seven of the Bard’s plays. Eor the purpose of record, I enumerate the plays Air. AVilkie has included in his AVellington season. They are ns iol"Hamlet,” "The Merry AVives of AVindsor,” "The Taming of the Shrew," "Tim Merchant of A r enice,” "As Yen Like It,” ■"Othello,” "Macbeth," "Twelfth Night.” ‘'Julius Caesar.” and "Borneo and Juliet.”