“TWELFTH NIGHT.”

Waikato Times, Volume 114, Issue 19010, 29 July 1933, Page 16 (Supplement)

“TWELFTH NIGHT.”

OPEN-AIR PERFORMANCE. SHAKESPEARE IN LONDON. " This is the air; that is the glorious sun,” cries Sebastian in Olivia’s garden, and sets the key to this performance in Its cool black and white ■against the motionless trees, says a London paper. The outdoor scenes of this delicious romedv, with tlie plotters lurking behind the boxhedge, and •Malvoilo "i- the sun, practising behaviour to his own shadow,". gain from their grassy setting in Regent’s Park. Nor, for that matter, were the revellers’ candles’ in any way dimmed by the vast natural stage, since breadth of treatment, is the njark of this production.

A great deal of incidental music gets the players on and off their bosky grove, and the songs—the only weak spot in last year’s performances —are exquisitely sung by Leslie French as Feste. With Robert Atkins as Sir Toby, Clare Harris as Maria, and Valentine Hooke’s Aguecheek, the fooling Is in the best possible hands. The idea of alternating Phyllis Neil-son-Terry and Margaretta Scott in the parts of Olivia and Viola has drawbacks. We know that Miss NeilsonTerry can play Olivia to our heart’s content; we fain would see Miss

Scott’s Viola, but this was a day for a dark Olivia,' a blonde and bountiful Viola. Sir Nigel Playfair’s Malvolio has more fun than dignity, with a proper note of tragedy at . the end.