SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19496, 27 November 1926, Page 7 (Supplement)

SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL.

GERMAN MINERS' INTEREST. % A typical industrial centre in Europe, the mining town of - Bochum, in Westphalia, a place on« might have supposed to be devoid of literary and spiritual culture, has arranged to give, next spring, a Shakespeare festival on a scale that will appeal not only to scholars all o'-pi- Germany, but also to visitors from England and America. All these may be assured, Dr. Hans Hecht, Professor of English at the University of Gottingen and a member of the German Shakespeare Society, recently told a representative of The London Observer, of a hearty welcome and liberal hospitality. Bochum has a population of about 250,000. There is no university near it, and it contains only two classes of inhabitants, the workmen in the mines and factories and the proprietors of the mines and works. " The interesting thing to me is," Professor Hecht said, " that the festival is to be given in just this part of the country, in the midst of a popula-' tion which is not, as a whole, literary in the academic sense of the word, and not in one of the university or metropolitan cities. Bochum has, however, in Dr. S. Schmitt, a theatre manager, -or ' intendant,' "as we call him, who is considered one of the very best and most gifted producers in Germany, A very enterprising man, as you eee, very energetic, and full of enthusiasm in his endeavours to get the great dramas continuously performed. " The whole cycle of the Histories from * King John' to 'Tienry VIII.' is to b6 given in the Whitsuntide week. next spring—and given on a scale I do not remember having seen anywhere in my lifetime. Four years, of intensive preparations have been already devoted to the festival, and the German Shakespeare Society have formed a committee to supplement Dr. Sehmitt's work with lectures by well-known authorities,, which will be given every morning during tho festival week." " What does the mining population think about a festival that is going to appeal rather specially to the world of literature and the drama?" Professor Hecht was asked. " Their interest, Dr, Schmitt tells me," he said. "is tremendous,, astonishing. And which of the plays do you think has interested them most ? You will say, perhaps, ' Henry IV.,' with Falstaff, or Henry V./ with its appeal to patriotism. But, no; the play that has made the greatest impression on the miners is * Richard ll.' They like the Falstaff plays less because, perhaps, they see so much realistic life about them." It is just that remoteness of ' Richard H.' that unfortunate and rather weak King, who has impressed them, and the tinge of sentimentality in the play, as well as a certain superabundance of poetic diction."