SHAKESPEARE IN MODERN DRESS

Evening Star, Issue 19794, 18 February 1928, Page 15

SHAKESPEARE IN MODERN DRESS

In an interview in the ‘Observer,’ Sir Barry Jackson lias something to say of his reasons for producing Shakespeare in modern dress. In his coming season he will produce ‘ Macbeth ’ in that manner, for the first time so far we know. “ I can’t see the play being done in any other way now, though a great play will hold good in any costume. The German theatre, indeed. has gone beyond modern dress. Reinhardt recently staged ‘ A Midsummer .Night’s Dream ’ in rococo costumes. 1 hope we in time shall get audiences to understand Shakespeare so thoroughly that they, too, will take the plays dressed in any kind of costume. Then we can talk about the plays, instead of the way in which we happen to be producing them. “ ‘Modern dress' is just .a phase we must go through to get rid of the false hair and draperies and an artificial ‘ Shakespearean ’ technique of acting.

Some people think I have adopted it from motives of economy. If they gave it a moment’s thought they would know it is not so, because ‘ modern dress,’ whether man’s or woman’s, is very much more expensive than fancy dress. “ Others, again, think I am not sincere about it, and say it is being done merely as a stunt. This is not true. You cannot make a success of anything about which you are not sincere. And Hamlet,’ my first experiment in 1 modern dress,’ was a very great success. It has since been done in the same way in New York, where it has caused the greater interest.” Sir Barry hopes in time to do nearly all the Shakespeare plays in modern dress. He added: “ I should not like to try ‘ The Tempest,’ and, of course, the historical plays cannot be treated in this way; but the majority can bo. ‘ Coriolauus,’ with a modern mob,, would be, I think, a very exciting pP*duction, and that I hope to do this yeW or next.”