'AS YOU LIKE IT'

Evening Star, Issue 25171, 10 May 1944, Page 5

'AS YOU LIKE IT'

AN EXCELLENT READING That delightful and ever-popular comedy ' As You Like It ' was the happy choice of the Dunedin Shakespeare Club for its reading in the Concert Chamber last night, a reading which proved to bo one of the club's most pronounced successes. The parts of the inseparable friends and cousins, Rosalind and Celia, were read bv Miss M. Randle and Miss N. Buswell respectively, and they were both oxcellent, Miss Randle portrayed admirably l.ho changing moods of sweet Rosalind, and both she and Miss Buswell repeatedly won the warm applause of the audience. Mr W. G. Clayton's reading of Orlando was first-rate, though it might be suggested that he was too consistently debonair for a < love-lorn writer of verse and carver of hearts on tree trunks! Mr N. McKmlay read Jacques with appropriate gloominess, yet he might have invested the well-known ' Seven Ages of Man ' with a little more of the distinction it deserves. Mr J. W. Hayward has probably never done anything better than his reading of Touchstone. He handled the subtleness of the famous clown's wit with skill, and his asides with Audrey (Miss F. Townsend, who played up to him cleverly) were true comedy. The two dukes, so different in character—the one a cruel usurper and the other a happy soul in exile—were read by Mr H. \V. Hunter and Mr A. F. Lanyon respectively. Mr Hunter's work was, as usual, sound, and Mr Lanyon was quite well cast. Among the best of the minor parts were those of Adam, Orlando's faithful retainer, and -William, a " country fellow.", These were particularly well handled by Mr L. D. Mclvor. Other roles were adequately filled by Miss C. Wallace (Le Beau and Jacques de Bois), Mr H. E. Cohen (Oliver), Mr Evans and Mr M. Penfold (shepherds), and Miss C. Justin (Phoebe). Incidental to the plot are several unaccompanied songs, and these were nicely sung by. Miss <E. Kirkham, who read the part of Amieus. Miss E., Lawrence acted as choruq, and the vocalist for the evening was Miss Margaret Elder, her accompanist being Miss Ida White. .