SHAKESPEAREAN SEASON

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18754, 6 January 1923, Page 7

SHAKESPEAREAN SEASON

The repeat performance of “The Merchant of Venice," with Mr Allan Wilkie ns Shylock. was much appreciated by last night's audience at IT is Majesty's Theatre. The performance to-night of the historical tragedy, “Richard III,” should prove to Ire cue of the most interesting of all the plays presented during this season hv the Allan Wilkie Company. The appellation earned by Richard 111 of the “Hunchback Murderer” was very appropriate. The murder of Clarence, while it was brutal, stamped Richard as one of the master plotters of the age. Richard, although very brave, was superstitious, and went into tne battle of Bosworth dispirited, because, on the eve of what wa-s to be the most important battle of his life, he was the victim of a hideous nightmare, in which the ghosts of his victims appeared to torment him. The closing scene in the play, which shows the battlefield of Bosworth. shows, however, that his faults did not include the vice of cowardice. The play itself calls for a display of exceptional histrionic ability. A Sydney paper, criticising its performance, said: “Mr Allan. Wilkie achieved a notable triumph, and his magnificent interpretation of the part of the Hunchback of Gloslcr was one of the host efforts that he has given He had the mannerisms that would distinguish a tyrant of the calibre of Richard brought to a fine art, and the,display in the second lost scene, when the ghosts wore torturing his guilt-laden mind, will not be soon forgotten by the audience.” Although Mr Wilkie will stage “Richard III” according to the original script, he has the distinction of being probably the only actor in the world who has produced this play also in accordance with the Colley Cibber version.