THE PRODUCTION OF "OTHELLO."

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1580, 25 October 1912, Page 6

THE PRODUCTION OF "OTHELLO."

Sir,—Will you permit me to correct an erroneous' impression which your critic, !!\ . (leali , nK ,vith our Production of Othello" last evening, obviously intends to convey to j-our- readers. He preludes his attack on the performance generally nml myself in particular by tho following EPiitfiice: —"To l>o quite candid, Mr. Ascho very wisely decided to leave the tragedy until the last nights of the season," inferring thereby that our production of "Othello" was not of etiual merit with our other productions, that we knew this, and trusted that the success of the other productions would bring tho public into tho theatre to see "Othello."

My reason for leaving "Othello" till the Inst is that all the critics of English, American, Continental, Australian, and New Zealand journals, who have witnessed the performance, have hitherto been pleased to rank our performance of "Othello" as our finest Shakespearean achievement, and that in every city and town we have played it, it has been our biggest draw.

During our last sea-son in England we wero done the great honour of being specially invited by the Council of the Shakespeare Memorial to Stratford, and there played "Othello" in the Memorial Theatre ou Shakespeare's birthday. The position of "Othello," therefore, in our season hero and elsewhere has been decided on the principle of "the best to the last."—l am, etc., OSCAR ASCHE. October 21. [Our criticism of "Othello" was not an "attack on I ho performance generally and Mr. Asehe in particular," and it surprises us to realise that an actor of Mr. Aschc's standing should for one moment entertain the thought that our critic had any such intention. Few matured playgoers with the critical senso who have seen all the performances will agree with the actor that "Othello" was cither his or his company's "finest Shakespearean achievement." That it happens to bo a "draw" has nothing to do with the pdnt at issue. If it had we could reply with perfect truth that Wednesday's house (a very large one) was, from a box office point of view, the least satisfactory of the Wellington se.isjn up to that Safe.]