ALLAN WILKIE COMPANY

Evening Star, Issue 17700, 29 June 1921, Page 4

ALLAN WILKIE COMPANY

‘JULIUS CfflSAß.' To keep going with nightly changes of tho Shakespearean plays must be a tax on the physique ns well a-s the mentality of a company. To, produce nine of the plays in a fortnight makes tho tax stiller. That is what Air Allan Wilkie and _ his associates have done in Dunedin this visit. The feat is, we think, unparalleled. Last night, as though to invito difficulties almost for the pleasure of overcoming them, Mr Wilkie put on ‘Julius Ctosar,’ which as a memory test and an elocution study is probably the most rigorous of all Shakespeare’s works. Anyway, it is exceptionally exacting, first by the call for stage effects in the way of armies andg holds and outward pomp; secondly, because wo have all as school children recited bits of the work, and as gyown-ups heard it recited or read, and hence have set up standards which the actors must rise to or stand condemned. Mr Wilkie dared a shower of tiny thunderbolts in essaying this play. But he and his company won through, and with much credit. It may bo granted that their presentation suffered somewhat in respect to tho pictorial requisites. Tho Capitol, in particular, was dwarfish. But none but the most ungenerous allowed even a vagrant thought to count against tho company’s effort to bring the pageantry to our eyes. Tho great thing was that tho audience saw the celebrities of the play moving and speaking, and it must bo acknowledged with deep gratitude that for tho most part tho acting was worthy of tho play and the players. All fair-minded hearers surely folt thankful for the evidence that tho text was firm in the actors’ memories. Not once was there any stick-np or audible aid from tho prompter. Another point about tho production was that it did not rest entirely on Antony, Caesar, Brutus, and Cassius. Tho smaller parts received equal attention and care, and came well into the picture. LcLJt bo stated that tho incidental rassic, composed and arranged by Mr Bradshaw Major, was a distinct aid to_ the representation—quite good enough for a Drury Lane elaboration on a grand scale. Too storm was also well managed.

At the outset a firm assurance was given as to the lesser parts. Mr Felix Bland as tho First Citizen and Mr Frank Heilman as tho Second Citizen duly made their points with the tradesmen’s speeches, and tho representatives ol Flavins and Marullus (not named in tho bill) followed with a fine selling forth of the personality of tho tribunes and its effect on a Roman crowd, whilst the •rabble was personified by a corps of auxiliaries that did its work splendidly. This promising commencement was lived up to all through the drama. Mr Augustus Neville was at a disadvantage in the part of Ctesar. If he could by thought have added a cubit to his stature ho would probably have done so gladly, for we instinctively figure Caesar as a big man. But he made the audience forget that handicap. He spoke the lines with fine dignity, and was especially convincing in the scene wherein, after Calphurnia has told her dream, Decins interprets it his way, and persuades Caesar to venture forth. Mr Neville is also to be thanked for the way he fell after tho thrusts and for the fortitude ho exhibited in lying without tho visible stirring of a mnsclo through, the long scene that follows. Mr Wilkie gavo a manly and uncomplicated impersonation of Marcus Antonins, and his delivery of the famous speeches belonging to the part was such as to be quite understood even by tho- younger students. His Antonins is broad in outline, with no nice shades, of feeling, and curb a man, as likely as not, the real Antonins was, rather than tho complex character he is sometimes represented. A triumvir in those days was not necessarily a schoolmaster, ncr a pedant, nor a professor of elocution. If ho was a Roman, rough and ready, that sufficed. Such was Mr Wilkie’s Antonins, and the representation was effective, more particularly in the part of the speech in the Forum where Antonins directly incites to insurrection by the reading of the will. Mr Jack Lennon, as the .Bruins of tho cast, scored for audibility and correctness, but occasionally lapsed into measured speech. He did his best work in the interview with Cassius after the assassination. Mr Robert Pur-die added to his previous successes a very fine impersonation as Cassius. All the shades of meaning were brought out in quick succession. If there was a little too much sawing the air with tho right hand, that was the only weakness in a portrayal that was always full of thought. Mr Fred Macdonald did wclF as Casca. Next in order of merit amomrat the men’s parts was perhaps the Soothsayer, impersonated by Mr Vincent Scully. This actor must bo' mentioned if only because of the impression ho made by his passion in beseeching Carsar to read tho schedule that embodies a warning. Mr Scully hero acted with so much fire that he spoke with a strong Irish accent. More power to him! It was a real touch of real throbbing life. By the way, tho lines now given to the Soothsayer are in some editions spoken by Artemidorus j hut that does not matter. Miss Vora St. John’s playing as Lucius also deserves special mention. Only two of the ladies of the company came out prominently in this cast—Miss Forbes as Calphurnia and Miss Hunter-Watt© as Portia, and neither had much to do, but what they did was just the thing. To-night wo are to have ‘The Taming of the Shrew’—lull of fun.