MR. WATSON'S RECITAL

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 34, 9 August 1921, Page 3

MR. WATSON'S RECITAL

The quality of Mr. Alexander, Watson's recitations is such that night after night one sees at them the same hearers—proof that the attraction is,no passing fancy, but the permanent magnetism of high quality steel. Last night Mr. Watson had ai full house- to listen to a programme which opened with the "Forum Scene from Shakespeare's "Julius Ceasar." It was a lour tic.force, and a revelation to those whose ac^uaintanceiwifch the tragedy was one merely of reading or of familiarity with the orthodox recitations of Mark Antony's famous funeral oration. Mr. Watson was most successful in reciting tho passing remarks) of the numerous crowd in the forum, and these, coupled with his preliminary description of the scene of the action, created an extraordinary vivid impression of ;i vast and lnghly-slrung concourse of people swayed to the frenzy of mutiny by the speech of the "plain, blunt man, Mark Antony. With, only a few moments' pause after this great, effort, Mr. Watson proceeded with a series of miscellaneous items. The first two wero pictures of the Great War. Captain Hopwood's "BallaJ of the Trawler" was very welcome, for it brought home to the audience-the romance of the submarine hunting service 'done by the Grimsby fishing fleet. After this came Sir Conan Doyle's vivid word picture, "The Guards Camo Through," describing an incident of the Loos front, when the 21st Division, completely worn out, but "stickin' it," saw. two brigades of the Guards come to their relief "with a. touch of tho London swank." Followed another battle picture, Kipling's "Snarleyow," which Mr. Watson described as for all its brevity, the most effective glimpse of the intense horror of warfare. Quite different was Kipling's well-known "Mandalay," which Mr. Watson delivered as a dreamy soliloquy.. Tho war-poems were divided by a quaint recitation from George • Eliot's "Adam Bedo," of the scene in .which Mrs. Poyser delivers her mind freely and fully and regardless of consequences to the squire to the obvious astonishment of the squiro and the dismay of the easygoing Poyser. An. Australian poem, touched with the bush accent, was "Smith's 'Emily," by Dr. Souter. The programme concluded with that did favourite, "Rubinstein at the Piano," which was displayed at its best as a vigorous exorcise for the major part of the muscular system. . , > This evening, Mr. Watson will give , a programme' comprising items'by J. M. Barrie, Longfellow, J. L. Gordon, Clark Russell, Desprez, and Hilairo Belloc. '