ALEXANDER WATSON.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20190, 30 August 1927, Page 3

ALEXANDER WATSON.

A REMARKABLE ENTERTAINER. Mr Alexander Watson, the famous English entertainer, who is making his fifth and final tour of New Zealand, will commence a short season of recitals at Burns Hall to-night, under the direction of Mr E. J. Gravestock, when he will give selections from the works of poets, dramatists, novelists, and humorists. Mr Watson is considered by many to be the foremost master of English diction on any stage or platform. “ Those people who sneer at the alleged shortcomings of the English language have not heard Mr Alexander Watson,” writes an Australian critic, “ or they would know better than to deny such a marvellous instrument of interpretation. What a great singer may do for the music of his native country this great entertainer, who is at the same time an elocutionist, has done for the spoken word of his. He has done more. He has lent a fresh enjoyment to literature, and brought a fresh understanding to bear on much of it.” Mr Watson’s programmes will be drawn largely from the works of Dickens. Sir J. M. Barrie. Kipling, Shakespeare, Mark Twain, John Drinkwater, John Masefield, Tennyson. A. A. Milne, Hilaire Belloc. Alfred Noyes, etc. At his first recital to-night Mr Watson wil give selections from Sir J. M. Barrie’s delightful story, “The Little Minister,” which incorporates what is probably one of the most amusing scenes Barrie has ever written—namely, “ Hunting for Ezra.” The first prpgr'inme will also include miscellaneous verse by John Masefield. Charles Mackay, C. Fox-Smith, and A. A. Milne, including the ever-popular “King’s Breakfast.” The recitals will be given nightly, and details of the box plans may be seen in our advertising columns.