ALEXANDER WATSON

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 41, 17 August 1921, Page 3

ALEXANDER WATSON

It depends upon individual cheice whether Mr. .Alexander Watson .is judged to be at liis best as an interpreter of Shakespeare, of Dickens, of Kipling, or of the other great. poets and prose writers whose works are included in his extensive repertoire. There can be no'two opinions, however, that his Shakespearean recitals are high art, whether the passage selected be tragic or comic. Last night Mr.. Watson chose two Shakespearean selections—the grave-digger's scene from " Hamlet" and a>^ fusion of two scenes from "As You Like It." In the latter he gave an excellent idea of the characters of the Duke, Jacques, and the distressed Orlando. One needed little ■imagination to picture the whole company in the Forest of Arden. Similarly in the "Hamlet" scone one could picture the srrave-digger, with liis songs and jokes at the graveside and the melancholy Hamlet contemplating the emblems of mortality.

The second part of the recital was an admirable exposition of the wide range of Mr. Watson's talent —and his sympathies, "The Power ,of Music", or "The Lode Diehards" showed him at his best in humorous prose, and he certainly made the most of Sir Arthur -Quilier-Couch's Cornish story. "Imphm" illustrated his powers in the Scotch, and was really splendid as a humorous item. Other numbers were "The Courtin" (Russell Lowell), "The Kelpie of Corrieyrickan " (Mackay)' and "Conn Goes Hunting" (Boucicault). There was a large audience.

This evening a new Kipling proKramme will be presented, which will include "The Ballad of the Clamperdown," "The Smugglers' Song," " Fuzzy , Wuzzy," "Gunga Din," "Lichtenberfr," "The Olory of the Garden," and "Ortheris in the Tangi." ...... .

Mr, Rowland Wood, a farmer, recently invited the unemployed shoe hands of Rounds, England, to a week's free rabbiting. '