THE SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL.

Otago Witness, Issue 2934, 8 June 1910, Page 102

THE SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL.

Br Maorilanda. It is six years now isince a little committee of 13 practical devotees of Shakespeare contrived to put into effect their long-cheria'hed project and inaugurated the first "Shakespeare Festival." It was with a good deal of misgiving that the attempt was made, for is it not a stock sentiment that "Shakespeare will not pay"? Be that as it may. 600 people were turned away from the doors of His Majesty's Theatre while "Twelfth Night" was be'ing rendered for a matinee draw! Surely this and the testimony of the numbers thronged to the festival at Strat-ford-on-Avon are substantial proofs that the Memorial National Theatre would'be a success were it once an accomplished fact? And it looks as though it might in the future, for one generous donor has now come forward with the offer of onefifth of the total amount necessary for the erection and endowment of the much desired theatre. This summer should do much to forward the project if organised plans are all carried out. June is to see a huge Shakespearian fancy-dress ball where close on 4000 people will be present, and grim Lady Macbeths will look on at the loves of innocent Juliets, and Hamlets and Ophelias will walk with Rosalinds and Antonios. This will hardly be over before the date of the Shakespearean masque arrives, and the openair gathering ought to' be in its way every whit as fascinating as the great ball. The proceeds from both these entertainments go towards the founding of the theatre. Despite pessimists, it looks as though the "good old days" might be revived. Is culture less than it was in 1874-5, when Henry Irving played "Hamlet" for 200 nights and secured for his manager a net profit of £10,000? Four years later, when Irving took over the management himself, and so secured a freer hand, "The Merchant.of Venice" was staged, and drew even better —£18.000 went to the profit account. "Romeo and Juliet" drew £34,000 in the first five months —the expenses on the production came to £24,000. The stir created by the first revival of "Much Ado About Nothing" is historic. It ran from October, 1882, to June in the following year, making x £26,000, despite the .enormous amount expended upon it, .and it was only withdrawn when Irving was obliged to fulfil his previciusly-made engagement to visit America. The receipts for "Macbeth" averaged £330 a niptflt during the whole 151 performances. Following this came the comparative failure of "King Lear" and "Cymbeline" and "Richard III" in 1896, upon which so many base the predictions regarding the failure of the projected theatre scheme. The first two paid to the. tune of £3700 betAveen them, and the non-success of the last ought.surely to be attributed to the accident which befell Sir Henry. As to the closing years of the veteran actor's reign at the Lyceum, it is hardly fair to take them into acount. Too many foes battled at the doors. Now for the festival of the moment, which, though played at Tree's theatre, is not by any means a purely Tree affair. Half the managers in London have lent their aid, to the end that it may be, so far as possible, a national affair, and a;S a result the various castes are well rnVh perfect, even the smallest parts being played by skilled actors, though curiously enough a departure has been made from the reputation in'the delineation of Viola in 'Twelfth Night." This was entrusted to Miss Phillida Terson, a girl yet in her teens, who stepped into prominence the other night by taking up her mother's burden and portraving the charming little Princess in "Henry of Navarre." Her youth, her grace,' and! spontaneous gaiety captivated her audience ; it must be a jovful experience, though a strange one, to begin at the top of the tree. The other plavs given in the five weeks' festival are "Richard ni," "The Merry Wives of Windsor" (in which Ellen Terry appeared with Lady Tree), "Julius Csesar" (with the beautiful 'Evelyn Millard). "Hamlet," and "The Taming of the Shrew," rendered by the Bensons and their Shakesperean Company; "Corialanus" and the "Two Gentlemen of Verona," bv the Elizabethan Stage Socity: and "Henry V." rendered bv Lewis Walter and those of the Lyric Theatre; while, on a special evening, the Kendals, Cyril Maude. H. B. Irving, Tree, Arthur Bourchier. Violet Vanbrugh, and Constance Collier united to give famous acts from various Shakespearian plays in which each reigned supreme. Of them all, one of the greatest successes seems to have been "The Merchant of Venice." with Arthur Bourchier as Shylock and Dorathea Baird portraying Portia. The theatre was filled, and with a responsive audience, silent when it should have been silent, stirred to applause at the moments when applause was most to be desired. The Shylock was a splendid piece of art. He was a Jew —and a Jew of the stage,— but portrayed in such a way that sympathy was stirred. Here was no outline of a fiend', but a tortured man of flesh and blood, bereft at one stroke of his twin deities, daughter and wealth, and left alone to be cursed and jeered at by the populace. What passion is there left for him but vengeance—vengeance upon these dogs of Christians who come to him with civil words, asking all the aid his wealth can give, but spurn him with scorn when his brief hour is done? He stands so imournrullyi alone! Small wonder that his soul becomes one concentrated desire. 'Tis always the little things that give effect, and in the Court scene it is the absorbed manner in which Shylock sharpens his knife on the isole of his shoe that adds the vivifying touch. Meanwhile Antonio stands waiting for the moment when he must bare his breast and submit while a pound of flesh is cut from his tody. . . . Then comes Portia, and

an outbreak of tragic joy on Shylock'e part when he finds one on the side of what, to his disordered brain, seems justice —one to say that the bond must be carried out, and that in exchange for all he has lost he may have, as written, one single pound of the hated Christian's flesh. It is not that he would kill Antonio, or that he desires vengeance against him personally : Antonio stands for the whole accursed race. The dashing of his hopes is realistically piognant. How could ho for a moment have had faith that a Christian would give justice to a Jew! Again the mob rend him, hurling him this way and that as he seeks his escape, while all he has left is demanded of him in punishment for having "conspired to take a Christian life." Life to the worn, frenzied, bereft old man seems but a mockery—not a boon. . . . Such is the Shylock given to us by the genius of Mr Arthur Bourchier.