SHAKESPEARE SEASON.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 October 1922, Page 4

SHAKESPEARE SEASON.

“THE TAMING OF THE SHREW.” A NOTABLE PERFORMANCE. The second evening performance of Mr. Allan Wilkie and his talented company was well attended. The audience was enthusiastic, and by frequent bursts of applause showed its appreciation. The performance was a notable one in all respects, and went with a swing, with an absence of hitches of any kind, that showed careful and skilful preparation. This play is one of Shakespeare’s earlier comedies, and partakes more or less of the nature of a farce. The action is rapid, the dialogue brilliant, while repartee and smart sayings abound. The plot is perfectly straightforward, and there are few digressions. In all these respects the play presents a great contrast to the later productions of the dramatist’s more mature genius. The characters, too, are far less complex, and as a rule exhibit but one predominating feature. Here we have no character as complex as Shylock, Touchstone, and Falstaff, not to mention the great creations of Hamlet and Lear. It is largely due to these characteristics, and to the absence of any moral problem, that the play is so popular and deservedly occupies a high place in the esteem of playgoers. Like so many of Shakespeare's plays, the plot and many of the characters are not original. It was the custom of our dramatist to take an older play, or some story, and refashion it, in the process changing the baser metal into pure gold by the alchemy of his art. “The Taming of the Shrew” is founded on two or three separate stories or plays, and is therefore a composite work. Only those who have examined Shakespeare’s sources can appreciate the marvellous skill with which he has combined the different stories and made them appear as an original whole, and by a few strokes has made out of lay figures living men and women. One of the most pleasing characteristics of the performance was the preservation of the unity of the drama. Each scene was treated as an integral part of the whole, forwarding the action. The alternation of the scenes of the two parallel plots, the love-affairs of the two sisters, Katharina and Bianca, was carried out in such a manner as to prevent any feeling of abruptness or irrelevance on the part of the audience.

The chief role, that of Petruchio, was played by Mr. Wilkie. Those who saw his performance of Shylock came prepared for a vigorous rendering, and were not disappointed. Of the character of Petruchio, Haslitt says, very truly: “The most striking feature in the character is the studied approximation to the intractable character of real madness, his apparent insensibility to all external considerations, and utter indifference to everything but the wild and extravagant freaks of his own self-will. There is no contending with a person on whom nothing makes any impression but for his own purposes.” Such is Mr. Wilkie’s interpretation of the character, and such is the explanation of much in the acting that might at first sight appear extravagant. The roughness of Petruchio is external, and purposely as, s.urned, as little touches of tender feeling towards his wife indicate.

The part of Katharina, the only other outstapding character, was admirably played by Miss Hilda Dorrington. In spite of all the violence and extravagance of her stormy passions, at no time did she descend to coarseness or commonplace. This is Shakespeare’s concention, and the greatest skill is required to prevent the actress from falling into the Scylla of mere outrageous vulgarity, or into the Charybdis of noisy ineffectiveness; and it may be ungrudgingly stated that Miss Dorrington succeeded perfectly. Few characters ifi real life change suddenly, and our author, in “holding the mirror up to Nature,” has, in spite of the strong temptations offered by his art, preferred to show, in most cases, a similarly progressive change. His gradual conversion of the shrew into the exemplary, patient wife, was finely render'd. We have previously spoken of Miss Dorrington’s voice. Its fine quality certainly made her representation of the shrew most effective.

Of the other character;., that of Gremin calls for special commendation. Mr. Hamilton Henry is to be complimented upon his rendering of the elderly lover, with his characteristic voice and staid action. With him “the hey-day in the blood is tame,” and in spite of his protestations his suit is not vigorously pressed. He is honest enough not to promise to his prospective bride a greater jointure than he can really furnish; while his frequent shrewd remarks and comments stamp him as a thoroughlypractical and observant man of the world. All this was well brought out in the acting. The part of Bianca was well played by Miss Lorna Forbes. The gentler of the two sisters is proved in the end to be in reality the less worthy. Katharina is too open to wish to appear other than she really is, while Bianca’s easier disposition would Beem to be largely the result of an amiable complacence. In representing such a character as the latter, the desifed result is best achieved by general demeanour and the creation of an atmosphere, so to speak. In this Miss Forbes certainly succeeded.

Baptista was represented by Mr. Augustus Neville, who played well a part that could easily be spoiled. No comedy of Shakespeare seems complete without a clown, and one clown of “The Taming of the Shrew” is Grumio, though not so described in the lists of persons represented. The only adverse criticism of Mr. Felix Bland’s performance that we have to offer is that he had a tendency to speak rather too quickly at times, and consequently was hard to follow. This was specially marked in his report to Curtis of his adventures on the way to Petruchio’s house, in Act IV, Scene 1. By the way, we had never thought of Curtis as a female character. We had always considered him as a kind of major-domo. In some editions the stage direction is given: Striking “him,” when Grumio cuffs his

To Tlortensio, Bianca’s unsuccessful wooer, and the husband of the widow, played by Mr. Workman: to Tranio, the scheming servant of Lucentio, played by Mr. Macdonald; to Lucentio, Bianca’s successful suitor, played by Mr. Manners; to Vincentio, Lucentio’s father, played by Mr. Lennon, and to Diondello, Lucentio’s servant and the second clown of the play, played by Mr. Wilson, unreserved commendation is due. The more minor characters also sustained their parts well. On the whole, Mr. Wilkie and his talented company are to be congratulated upon a very fine performance. It is perhaps as well to stage what for Shakespeare is a slight play, in order that the versatility of his genius and the development of his mind and art may be the better understood and appreciated; for, in the words of Goethe, “He who knows not the history of his subject, knows not the subject itself.” The season will conclude to-night, with “Haxolet.”