A GREAT SHAKESPEARIAN FESTIVAL.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVI, Issue 946, 23 April 1908, Page 17

A GREAT SHAKESPEARIAN FESTIVAL.

Lovers of ,Shakespeare would indeed have a good time at the annual series of performances in' connection with the Shakespeare . Festival,. ai . the Memorial, Stratford-on-Avon, which was to commence on April. 20th and last for three weeks, under the direction of Mr F. R. Benson. Mr Benson, according to the ‘‘Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette” will have the co-operation and resistance, .of Miss Genevieve Ward, Mr Lewis Waller; and Miss Evelyn Millard, Mr Henry Ainley and Miss Gertrude Elliott, Mr Arthur Bourchier, and Miss Violet Vanbrugh, Mr W. Poel and the Elizabethan Stage Society. The programme for the first week will comprise “Much Ado About Nothing,” “Measure for Measure ” E’izabethan Stage Society Mr William Poel “The Winter’s Tai- ’’ “A Mid-summer Night’s Dream,” and “Richard HI. ” Queen Margaret, Miss Genevieve Ward. The second week will open with “Henry V.,” with Mr Lewis Waller as King Henrv and Miss Evelyn Mi lard a’so in the cast. On Tuesday “Faust” wTI be given, and on Wednesday afternoon “The

Winter’s Tale,” with ’’Richard II,” in the evening. On Thursd~-. afternoon “Romeo and Juliet” will have as Juliet Miss Constance Collier, and Romeo Mr Henry Ainley. There will be no performance in the evening on account of the ball in the Town Hall. On Friday “As You Like It” wil be played, and on Saturday afternoon “Faust,” with “Julius Caesar” in the evening. Mr Forbes Robertson and Miss Gertrude Elliott in “Hamlet” will open the third week, “Hamlet” being played on the Monday evening and Tuesday afternoon. Tuesday evening will be devoted to ‘ ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor,” “Macbeth” will be the bill on the Wednesday, while on Friday afternoon an innovation will be made in the presentation of “Dr Johnson,” with Mr Arthur Bourchier in his origina' part, and “M. de Paris,” with Miss Violet Vanbrugh in the cast. “Faust” on Friday and “The Tempest” on Saturday afternoon and evening will complete the Festival.