ENGLISH COMEDIES

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 264, 3 August 1929, Page 9

ENGLISH COMEDIES

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY CLASSICS Mr. Allan Wilkie, who has returned to Wellington after a lapse of six months, told a “Dominion” reporter yesterday that he did not wish it to be thought that he was abandoning Shakespeare because he was making a new departure, and producing a series of eighteenth century comedies, written by Sheridan and Goldsmith. “As a matter of fact.” said Mr. Wilkie, “it is the custom of Shakespearean companies all over the world to include these delightfully brilliant comedies, besides other masterpieces of English dramatic literature. As an example, even at the Shakespearean festival held at Stratford-on-Avon to celebrate the playwright’s birthday, it is the invariable custom to include one or two of those eighteenth century comedies in the repertoire. Indeed, I regard it as a duty of a Shakespearean producer to give the public an opportunity of witnessing as large a range as possible of English poetical and classical dramatic literature. “The inclusion of these plays proved extraordinarily popular in Auckland, where they were received with the greatest enthusiasm by large audiences. It, is .a very extraordinary thing that ‘The School for Scandal,’ ’The Rivals.* and ‘She Stoops to Conquer.’ which I am now about to produce in Wellington—all written within a period of five years, 1772 to 1777 —by their brilliant wit. masterly construction and wonderful characterisation, are still recognised as being the three finest comedies written within the last two hundred years. I make no attempt to modernise these plays, but follow the •business’ and traditions handed down from the time of Sheridan and Goldsmith, via the Haymarket Theatre. London (which was for over a hundred years the home of English comedy), and the late Edward Compton, who received those traditions from his father, Henrv Compton, for many years, a leading member of the Haymarket Theatre organisation. The only modernisation I have attempted in those productions is that, realising that the public of to-day do not desire long and frequent entr ates. T have, without ii. any way curtailing the acting text, condensed the plays from five to three acts . The■ personnel of the company is practically identical .with the Shakespearean organisation with which I visited Wellington in January last. As •in earnest of mv intention not to desert Shakespeare. T shall on the conclusion of my season of English comedies, stage several Shakespearean plays?