"AS YOU LIKE IT"

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 20, 23 July 1927, Page 6

"AS YOU LIKE IT"

A POPULAR SUCCESS

How memorable a Shakespeare season the Allan Wilkie Company has provided is proved by the fact that, beginning on Oth July, fifteen performances (excluding matinees) have now been given, and nine plays have been performed; also by the fact that the quality of the performances is ascendent, and regular season-goers have been as much delighted by "The Ten.pest" (Thursday night) and Dy "As \on Like It" (last night) as they were by the splendid opening performances of "lvng Henry VII." and "Antony and Cleopatra." This astonishing range and sustained quality are a credit to the company as well as to the principals; but, just to show the measure of it, just think what Miss Hunter-Watts, and' Mr. Allan Wilkie have themselves done in fifteen days:Queen Katherine and Wolsey were followed by Cleopatra and Antony, by Shylock and Portia, by Titania and Bottom, by Antony and Portia, by Sicily's King and Queen (in the rare "The Winter's Tale"), by Macbeth and his Lady, by Caliban and Miranda, and last night by Jacques and Rosalind. . And last night, the fifteenth night, there was hardly a weak spot in the cast, and a packed house went home highly, pleased with play and players.

From characters like Cleopatra and Lady Macbeth, and Queen Katherine to Rosalind is a far cry, but Miss HunterWatts surmounts all difficulties of space and time. In the wit, charm, and vitality of JRosalind, masquerading as a young gallant, in masculine attire, she lacks nothing. . She is as much at.home when she strips the rags of melancholy pose from Jacques (the "traveller" wlio has sold his own lands to see other men's, and whose depressing worldly wisdom is a poorer asset than the. raillery of an untiavelled fool) as when she conducts a fantastic 'but fascinating flirtation with Orlando in her protecting male masquerade, or joins with Celia and the Jester, Touchstone, with Phoebe and William, in some of the most exquisite fooling that Shakespearian comedy offers. Mr. Allan Wilkie has all the command of diction required to make a success of the speeches of Jacques, with their peai'ls of wisdom. Jacques's "most humorous sadness"—to use his own description', of it—is a pose that can be overdone, but Mr. Wilkie's interpretation of the part leaves it on safe ground, without detracting in the least from the pageantry of cynicism to which the character of "Jacques aspires aud attains. Mr. .-William Lockhart, who never fails to look and speak' any part allotted to him, presents, as the exiled Puke, a picture of courage in adversity and brood tolerance. The Orlando of Mr. Denis Barry is - conspicuous for its' youthfulness and sentimentalism, rather than for its abounding vitality; there have been better Orlandos; and worse. The comparatively small part of Oliver cannot obscure the all-round excellence of Mr. Frank D. Clewlow; and Mr. Vincent Scully's talents are welL applied as the old retainer Adam. On -the.-.-comedy, side, the Jester of Mr. Arthur Keane and the gambols of Audrey. (Miss Mona Duval) and William (Mr.. Milton Sands) were well repaid in applause, nor was appreciation lacking for Mr. Glen laston's Corin, Mr. John Cameron's Silvius, Miss Marjorie Carr's Phoebe, and Mr. Herbert Sheldrieh's very beau-like Le Beau. Especially successful is Miss Dulcie Cherry, who on successive pights • has been seen as a dainty Ariel and as a charming Celia. There can hardly be a veal Rosalind without a real Celia, and the comedy success of last night's performance depends largely on the fact that the company includes both.

To-night, and on Monday nignt will be staged at the Grand Opera Hpunc "Measure for Measure," and. on Tuesday niglit "Hamlet."