SHAKESPEAREAN SEASON

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18746, 27 December 1922, Page 4

SHAKESPEAREAN SEASON

ALLAN WILKIE’S OPENING NIGHT. “MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM.” It is now just over eighteen months since Mr Allan Wilkie and his company delighted Dunedin playgoers with their first all-Shakespearean season. It was understood then that this most enjoyable and educational visit was to be an annual event, and Mr Wilkie’s return has been eagerly anticipated by numbers ever since. He is now just at the close of an extensive tour of the dominion in pursuance of his life work of bringing the people into closer touch with Shakespeare, the greatest glory of our language and literature. Mr Wilkie opened his season in His Majesty’s Theatre last night with “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” and undoubtedly many now absent from the city on holiday are earnestly wishing that his visit might have fallen at another .time. Yet they may find soma slight consolation in the reflection ■that the arrangement is after all a distinct ' compliment to Dunedin. Mr Wilkie had to be somewhere over the holidays, and nowhere else in the dominion could he - count so surely on support during the slack time. After all, Dunedin’s reputation for knowing and appreciating what is really good on the stage is something more than an idle rumour. The ‘‘Midsummer Night’s Dream” was appropriately chosen for the opening piece as having perhaps more than, any other of the master’s works the joyful holiday spirit of irresponsible gaiety and sheer fun and good humour. In presenting it at all Mr Wilkie was giving defiance to so notable ah authority as Hazlitt, who has a remarkable passage dealing with the suggestion that the “Dream” would be suitable for presentation as a Christmas afterpiece. According to Hazlitt the experiment was tried, and completely failed from the very nature of the case. The play he considers too airy and fanciful to be reproduced in material form at all, and says that all that is finest in it is lost in the representation. Without going the full length of agreeing with this criticism it certainly emphasises the difficulties with which, a producer is faced ,in representing tiny elves, invisible fairies, and a dozen other of the sprightly fancies that make the play what iu is. ■But whatever may have happened with the experiment Hazlitt bad in mind there was certainly no such failure to record last night. The play is one of those .that Mr Wilkie has not before presented in Dunedin, but it is fresh in the minds of many owing to a recent very successful amatohr performance by High School girls. It is a most delightful fantasy after the characteristic manner of a droate, and though it certainly belongs to the early comedies it is regarded as chronicling the high water mark of Shakespeare’s achievement in pure imagination. _ It is summed '■ up in the words “caprice triumphant,” and the performers last night had clearly caught its spirit and had no slight success in casting its spell over the audience. .In this they were helped in no small degree by the delicate beauty and ingenuity of the stage • settings. Indeed, it _ seemed that in this Mr Wilkie was departing somewhat from the ideal of stern Elizabethan simplicity. but while the effects are as happy as those achieved last night in the woodland scene t behind the gauze curtain none will be found to quarrel with him on that account. What strikes one most abobt the cast is the absence of the name of Miss Frediswydo Hunter Watts, the charm and power of whose acting here last winter will not soon be forgotten. She has unfortunately been • suffering from much ill-health lately and is at present'in Australia. Miss Hilda Dorrington is now the leading lady and. she filled the part of Helena, the lover of Lysander. There seemed to bo a coldness about, her opening work, but she grew more expressive and convincing later on. Mr Wilkie himself, as Bottom, the ■ Weaver, was responsible for most of the fun of the evening, and that is saying much, for the “Dream” is full of fun. As the self-im-portant, preposterous, but always self-pos-sessed Bottom, he was irresistibly absurd. • and many deft original touches effectively increased the humour. All the scenes with the clowns, among whom Bottom is so prominent, were excellently done, and each of the five “rods mechanicals” in his own way contributed generously to the general amusement. .Such a simple device as having Starveling, the tailor (Mr J. Flumpton. Wilson), deaf was provocative of no end of mirthful situations. The" climax of hilarious absurdity was reached in the final scene in which the clowns presented their ‘‘most lamentable comedy of Pyramus and Thisby” to the Duke of Their clumsy bungling and frequent mishaps were most cleverly and realistically done , Speaking of the play as a whole the enunciation of the characters was excellent, and hardK- a word was lost save perhaps when one 'of the clowns tried to speak in a strange acting voice. Mr Augustus Neville as The so us. gave a dignified but somewhat colourless presentation of the part._ Mr Jack Lennon was vigorous and convincing in the minor part of Aegeus. The important parts of Lysander and Demetrius were capably and satisfactorily filled by Mr Frank Moore and Mr Ellis Irving. All the clowns -Quince (Mr Lockhart), Snug (Mr Macdonald). Flute (Mr Henry), Snort (Mr Bland), and Starveling iMr Wilson)—deserve special mention, for their work was consistently good. Miss Lorna Forbes, who won so many firm admirers on her last visit was oast as Hennia, and again gave convincing display of her elocutionary art and hor unusual dramatic gifts. H«r presentation of the scene m which Herraia awakes in the wood to find Lysander g9 ne was probably the most skilful and convincing piece of acting seen; throughout the evening Among the fairy characters that are never far away much, of course, depended on Obron (Mr Lrelie'kanners), Puck (Miss Vera St. John), and Titama (Miss Pamela Travers). They cam© through a difficult test with distinction, receiving as they did excellent support from ths , dainty little fairies who flitted in and out and fromtte singing Fairy (Miss Phylhs Mmw O-T"® of the tiny tots danced very prettily and were heartily encored. , , . ~ There was only one interval during the evening at the end of Act 111 scene 1, and the audience seized the opportunity to express its appreciation by prolonged applause of first one and then another group ot. actors. A similar scene took place at the close The theatre was by no means filled, but more than two-thirds of the circle was occupied and in all the circumstances the ■attendance must be considered gratifying. There is reason to believe that in spite ot .the holidays the audiences will continue to increase as the season proceeds. The opportunity is one not to be missed by any who care for the best in literature and on the "taco. The vigour, enthusiasm and success with which Mr Wilkie has been producing Shakespeare throughout Australia and New Zealand during the last two years is effectively epitomized m the brief statement that hist night lie was giving his six hundred end twentieth consecutive Shakespearean performance. The play selected fo. r to-night is the popular Merchant of., Venice.” ■