Emlyn Williams as Charles Dickens in Bleak House. (Ambass . adors.) Tins
is a virtuoso performance of an even -higher order, but it com- pares unfavourably in my opinion with Emlyn Williams's earlier appearance in the character of Charles Dickens. What he gave then was a selection of scenes from the novels, and since each item was complete in itself and different in character from the others in the programme, there was ample variety of content as well as Mr. Williams's sheer technical mastery to sustain the recital. The mastery of technique remains, but in this adaptation of an entire novel for solo performance, contracted to one twenty-fifth of the original, too great a strain is put upon it. And upon the audience too, I thought, as Mr. Williams picked up the plot after the second interval and as I struggled against a drowsiness that threatened to obscure the bearded figure on the stage and to muffle the constantly changing accents. It was a wildly ambitious project : thirty-five characters and caricatures, each sharply differentiated, a plot to be kept running, three and one-eighth gallons to be poured into a pint pot. If anyone could have done it, Mr. Williams was he. The sharp crack as he snapped the book shut at the end brought me to full consciousness and to the conclusion that it is not quite possible. Not even for Mr. Williams. •
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