NOTABLE PERFORMANCE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 613, 15 March 1929, Page 15

NOTABLE PERFORMANCE

MR. WILKIE’S KING LEAR FAITHFUL INTERPRETATION Generally considered as the most tragic work in English drama, “King Lear” demands more from the players in its cast than docs any other work, in the Shakespearian repertoire. Mr. Allan Wilkie gave a notable performance at His Majesty’s last evening before tlieir Excellencies Sir Charles and the Lady Alice Fergusson and it was undoubtedly the best Work lie has dona in Auckland. Mr. AVilkie swept through the series of emotional moods that 'beset the old king, painting liis effects in colours now violent, now as soft as the summer skies. In the death scene —surely the most terrible and tragic scene ever captured for the stage—he paints so violently and yet in a manner so controlled that the spectator is left wondering, not so much at the genius of the author, but at the consummate skill of the actor. Mr. AViikie gives such a performance in the earlier acts as gives him the right to be remembered for ever in Auckland at least for his skill in expounding the fine shades of the poet’s intentions. His Lear is a figure that has the sympathy of the audience almost from the beginning but the puppet is so clear cut, so well delineated, that the finale seems as inevitable as fate. Miss Hunter-Watts, as Cordelia, ably supported Mr. Wilkie. She gave a performance of great beauty that was worthy of the high traditions of Mr. Wilkie’s company. As the vilo sisters, Goneril and Regan, Miss Lorna Forbes and Miss Marjorie Carr, were living and expressive figures in the maze of hatred surrounding the king. In that most gentle and attractive part of the king’s faithful friend Mr. William Lockhart, as Gloucester, gave a line performance. As Edgar in the mad scene Mr. Dennis'Barry gave a weird and striking piece of acting and Mr. Arthur Keane made an excellent Aubrey, the fool. . , _ _ This evening “All's AVell That Ends Well” will be played in Auckland for the first time.