MR ALEXANDER WATSON.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20965, 3 March 1930, Page 12

MR ALEXANDER WATSON.

The popular platform entertainer, Mr Alexander Watson, will appear in Dunedin on March 11, at the new Town Hall Concert Chamber. A feature of his recitals this year will be the revival of John Masefield’s remarkable poem, “The Everlasting Mercy,” which Mr Watson did on an earlier tour. This powerful and original poem, described by Sir J. M. Barrie on publication as “ unquestionably the finest literature of the year,” was awarded the Polignac Prize of 100 guineas by the Royal Society of Literature. Masefield in this work speaks out boldly; a spade to him is nothing more than -a spade;. primitive passion sweeps through the story with the force of a cyclone. It deals with the wild outbursts of passion and sin of a dissolute and .violent, but deeply imaginative, poacher, Saul Kane, who, after defeating his former friend in a fierce fight, abandons himself to debauchery with a number of lewd companions, maddens himself with liquor, runs amok through the village, doing all sorts of damage, from storing in front doors to alarming the whole populace by ringing the fire bell, until hu is suddenly converted to a knowledge of better things through a, simple incident with a little child and the instrumentality of a good and high-minded woman. When Mr Watson presented his interpretation of this dramatic narrative, with its scries of vivid and realistic wordpictures of intense emotion at a series of recitals at the Little Theatre, London, his, success was remarkable. Selections from Shakespeare, Kipling, Dickens, Mark Twain, George Eliot, John Drinkwater, Hilaire Belloc, and Barrie, including the delightful selections from “ The Little Minister,” which were so popular on Mr Watson’s last tour, will be presented.