Popular Fallacies regarding Shakespeare

Radio Record, Volume II, Issue 31, 15 February 1929, Page 3

Popular Fallacies regarding Shakespeare

Mr. Allan Witkie Broadcasts from 2YA.

1‘URING my tour of the Dominion in 1927 I had the privilege of broadcasting two little addresses dealing with chara phases of Shakeare. .In one I. remember endeavouring to disabuse the minds of my listeners that Shakespeare was an academic entertainment, and the other showing how the phrases and writings of Shakespeare. had become incorporated in our daily specch, even though in the majority of cases we might be ignorant of our indebtedness to him for sayings which had become household proverbs.. To-night I propose to touch upon some popular fallacies regarding Shakespeare. They are: many and varied, and it. will only be possible for me to refer to a few, and those very briefly. A conversation during the lunch hour on Wednesday in a wellknown cafe in Wellington exemplfies a mistaken -belief regarding’ Shakespeare which. I should like to think is very exceptional, but unfortunately Heian -of so many instances of a siminature that I am reluctantly comHed to realise that notwithstanding our much-vaunted system of modern education .such colossal ignorance is far from rare. : The conversation was between a lady and gentleman seated at a-:table in the cafe, who were discussing the cur‘rent entertainménts.in the city, and the lady inquired "What was on" at the Grand Opera House? "Oh, they are playing Shakespeare there," replied ‘her friend, . "Oh, yes, Shakespeare," repeated the lady vaguely, "Are they playing it in. English?" She evidently had a confused notion that Shakespeare was something akin to Italian grand opera, which, although occasionally. rendered in lish, was more usually heard in the language of. Mussolini’s compatriots. q SEN I was playing "The Merchant x"of Venice" recently in a certain in New South Wales, the custodion or earetaker of the theatre, ap: parently .a well-known. and popular identity of the town, stood on the front steps and greeted the members of the audience, with most of whom he seemed' to be on familiar terms. as they entered, One little group, however, stopped..and debated with him the advisability or otherwise of going in to see the play.. ‘One of them. obviously referring to the ‘character of Shylock,. remarked to him, "You. know it requires a very fine actor to play this, part." . ; "Oh," replied my friend the careker, "This man’s good, ‘he’s the original, he -wrote it." At one stroke he thus disposed of the Baconian theory for all time, -and also paid me the greatest Sompliment of my whole career,

Thesé two little stories, both of which I can personally vouch for, expose the popular fallacy that Shukespeare; however much we may cherish him as our national poet, is appreciated by, or even known to, a large section of the community. Such callous indifference and abysmal ignorance makes one ‘wonder whether we deserve TUATHA MOMMA HA UO RAIUM MC iO flit Mi

the many gréat men which the English race has produced. One cannot conceive a Scotchman in any part of ‘he world, uo matter how humble his origin and circumstances, who has not at least a working knowledge of Robbie Burns, or. say, a’ German to whome Goethe or Schiller would convey nothing more than a name. SPEAKING of the Germans, there occurs to me another popular, fallacy regarding Shakespeare, It is continually reiterated through the medium of the British Press, and by the Germans themselves that Shakespeare is infinitely more popular in Germany than he is with his fellow countrymen, both in. England and throughout the British Empire. , . Now,.in the last issue of the German Shakespeare Yearbook, the number of stage performances of. Shakespeare throughout Germany for the previous year amounted to 1683, while here in Australia and New Zealand, with my company, I give an average of over 300 performances annually, which, in ratio to ‘the population of Australia and New Zealand ‘combined, and that of Germany, indicates that you are getting at least 50 per cent, more Shakes. pearean representations than the Germans. And it is also to be noted that every one of those: 1683 performances of Shakéspeare in Germany was. subsidised by either the Government or the municipal authorities. In that one respect I do admit that Germany, and indeed every other civilised. country -is far ahead of us, inasmuch as they realise the importance of the drama in their national life. and by the help of substantial subsidies, foster and encourage the production of classical and . literary drama.

OVW, let us examine another erroneous belief regarding Shakespeare, which I find reilected in the "Dominion" critique of a play I produced last week. In his comments on the play the critic states, "The very fact that the lesser known plays are only produced once in a generation or

so, may be conceded to a rough classifieation of their merits as a theatrical entertainment." How far this generalisation might apply to the play referred to in this particular case, this is not the time nor the place to discuss, but the statement as a whole is based on a superficial knowledge of the determining factors in Shakespearean production, and will be found on examination to be entirely fallacious, although his opinion is undoubtedly shared by a large number of people.

In the first place, the theory advauted by the writer, presupposes that the muss of the people are the finest judges of the merits of a theatrical entertainment, on which line of argument the merits of "Chu Chin Chow," "Charley's ‘Aunt" and "Kast Lynne" are pre-emi-nent. Also it postulates the theory that the taste in Shakespearean plays is unchanged and unchangeable, whereas taste and preference will be found to vary, not only in every generation, but in practically every decade, and with every country, and even, to some extent,: with every town. ; The plays that have been most suecessful in Wellington, may fail to attract in Dunedin and vice versa. Samuel Pepys, in his famous diary, describes "A Midsummer Night's Dream" as "The silliest play that ever I did see,"’ yet to-day it vies with "The Merchant o.' Venice" as the most popular of all Shakespeare’s plays. No one will seek to deny that "Othello," probably the finest constructed play of Shakespeare, is an excellent dramatic entertainment. Twenty years ago, and even less, it was one of the biggest draws in Shakespeare-' to-day it is one of the least attractive. "Much Ado About Nothing" has all the qualities that mr:'e for popularity. Two ‘ine, and well-known, leading characters in Benedick and Beatrice, and an equally well-known low comedy part in Dogberry, witty lines, intensely humorous and dramatic situations, a charming song, dances, and all the ingredients of a popular play.

UNDAY last listeners to 2YA were privileged to hear Mr. Wilkie deliver his interesting address on Shakespeare. That so great an interpreter of the master dramatist as Mr. Wilkie would take an unusual angle, was almost to be expected. A new light was thrown upon the works of Shakespeare, revealing the very broad outlook of one who has for a lifetime been associated with drama. The address, repeated below, by the courtesy of Mr. Wilkie, came over splendidly, reflecting great credit on the man before the microphone, and also the man behind it.

sc*Audiences are invariably delighted with it, but for some unaccountable reason, it is never a draw with the public. A recent production of this play in London with two most popular players in Henry Ainley and Madge ‘Nitheridge, ran for two or three weeks only. Brough and Boucicault, with a ‘magnificent production in Australia ‘years ago lost a small fortune over it. Prue, Irving with the aid of a beauti‘ful production and a cast which included Ellen Terry, Forbes Robertson and "William Terriss, managed to get a run ‘out of it at the Lyceum, but that was the solitary exception, and even with him it never took a place in his per‘manent repertoire, and was soon dropped. On its merits as a theatrical entertainment it ought never to be out of ‘the repertoire of a Shakespearean company, and be equally as popular as "As You Like It" and "Twelfth Night," Why isn’t it? I defy the "Dominion" ‘critic, or anyone else to tell me why. "Coriolanus," although one of the lesser-known plays, in my recent sea‘sons in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, was acclaimed by the Press and public as the greatest success of the 19 plays then in my repertoire, but the "Dominion" critic found the play tedious in parts, yet "Coriolanus," a hundred years ago was extremely popular and constantly acted. HE most potent factor, however, in deciding the selection of ShakesPearean plays for stage presentation, has been the question of parts, and it will be found that in most of the neglected plays there is no outstanding character which offers a suitable vehicle for the exploitation of the personality and talent of the star actor or actress. A notable instance of this kind is "The Winter’s Tale," which, with a poor leading man’s part, and three women’s parts of almost equal value, had been shelved for the past forty years in New Zealand, until I revived it here in 1927. Played for two or three nights in every large centre, it proved extraordinarily popular, and I have no hesitation in stating, that judged purely as a theatrical entertainment, there is nothing better in Shakespeare, "The Merchant of Venice"? and "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" not excepted. Of course, it would be foolish to contend that all of Shakespeare’s plays are of ecual merit, but it is equally foolish to dogmatise regarding the merits of certain plays because they are not constantly placed before the public. The critic who does so is simply following

a fallacious belief, unsupported by facts, and based upon insufficient knowledge of the. circumstances which goyern the choice of plays for stage representation. _ THILE on the subject of critics, let me point out another fallacy from which they suffer. No doubt with the very best of intentions, and the. desire to be helpful, they constantly stress in their criticisms of the performaneces, the philosophy, wisdom, and intellectual qualities of Shnakespeare. Now, the primary motive with which the majority of people attend a theatre, whether they go to see Shakespeare, a musical comedy or a mystery play, is for the purpose of being entertained, and there is no surer method of making them stay away thahb to give them the impression they are going to witness an "educational" entertainment. All great drama is, of course, educational in the highest degree, but the educational aspect should be merely incidental and to a certain extent unconscious, and I know of no greatér disservice to the theatre in general and Shakespeare in particular than this. continual stressing of his moral teachings and educational influence. Wmnhasise and make pevuple reulise

the fact that Shakespeare contains more genuine comedy and greater drama than all other playwrights conbined, that the humours of Falstaff are even more amusing than the inanities of musical comedy--that the drumatie situations in "Macbeth" or "King Lear" are even more thrilling thin the peurile jack-in-the-box absurdities of the latest crook drama, and every performance would be filled to overflowing. The belief that Shakespeare is highbrow and heavy mental food dies hard fostered as it is by pedants and commentators who seek to obscure his inherent simplicity and fundamental greatness, under a mass of dry-as-dust annotations and academic learning. In other words, let Shakespeare speak for himself through the medium of the stuge, for which his plays were written and designed. Tor, to quote Frederic Harrison:-‘"It is impossible to judge any drama by reading it. The whole nature of a play of the first yank is transfigured when we see it adequately performed. It is only reyeuled in acting. No imagination can enable us to conceive the whole force of a really great drama until we SEE JT. You might as well try to judge a symphony of Beethoven by looking at the score, and that is more true of Shakespeare than of any other (divamatist, ancient or modern: Shakespeare was & player to the tips of his toes; and he must be SEEN and HHARD on the stage to be truly known."