DUNEDIN SHAKESPEARE CLUB.

Otago Witness, Issue 3886, 4 September 1928, Page 70

DUNEDIN SHAKESPEARE CLUB.

It is surprising, since the Dunediq Shakespeare Club bolds only three readings a year, that it should have chosen for last Thursday evening’s performance one of the great dramatist’s least notable works. Shakespeare would lose no whit of his greatness, and the club would still X be well provided with material, if “ The ’ Merry Wives of Windsor ” were deleted from the body of his works. Nevertheless, the large audience that filled His Majesty’s Theatre unquestionably could not complain of the selections that wero made from this inglorious story of the rascally Falstaff. The reading was an unqualified success, and the cast is to be congratulated upon the excellent manner in which it presented the best passages of a play that must lack the characteristic grandeur of Shakespeare since it was written hastily at,the behest of Queen Elizabeth, who was curious to see Falstaff in love. Sir John Falstaff loses all his carefully, thought-out and original philosophy iu this play, in which he is subjected to thn most humiliating indignities, but Mr H. W. Hunter read the part in such a manner as to invest his rather sterile role with -a joviality worthy of the fat knight in those London days. The wives. Mistress Ford and Mistress Page, provide a great deal of amusement, but Mrs W. J. Low brought to her performance a freedom and grace which was lacking in the case of Miss A. Campbell as Mistress Ford, Mr C. J. L. White, as the jealous Mr Ford, was convincing in his vehemence, and in some of the more emotional lines of liis part he reached an admirably high standard of fiery eloquence. Mr R. H. Wilson was true to type as the uxorious Mr Page, who would listen to no scandal about his wife. Mr A. C, Maclaren, as Slender, the unwilling suitor for Mistress Anne’s hand, had no easy task to read into his passages the callowness and lack of sophistication which the lines demanded, but he exhibited an aptitude for simulation and eloquent inflection that won him continued applause. Mr S. H. Osborn played Justice Shallow, and gave a splendid reading. Mrs Murray achieved a great success as Mrs Quickly, and her readings were all received with enthusiasm. Mr H. Chapman, as Sir Hugh Evans, the Welsh parson, and Mr W. E. Dall, as the choleric French physician, had difficult moments, but both were very effective. Mr J. B. Flynn, as the jovial host of the Garter Inn, displayed a ruggedness that befitted the part. Others in the cast were Miss H. Smith (Mistress Anne Page), Miss R. Scott (Robin and Rugby), and Messrs C. Smith (Fenton and one of Falstaff’s sharpers), W. B. Quennell and R. Simpson (two other sharpers). Miss J. M‘Lennan acted as aunouucer, and Mr H. Chapman was chairman for the reading. During the interval Miss Helen Gard’ner entertained the audience with two vocal items, for which she was loudly applauded. She sang Puccini’s “ They Call Me Mimi ” and “ When Love is Kind,” an old melody arranged by A.L. As an extra she sang “ The Songs My Mother Taught Me.”