THE production of this play, last seen at Stratford in
i9oo, falls between two stools. With the first act gone altogether, and with lavish cuts elsewhere, it denies opportunity to judge the merit of the play as a whole or to guess where Shakespeare's Midas touch took over. Pericles's choice of Cleon and his wife for the custody of Marina becomes inexplicable. It is fitting that at Stratford oppor- tunity should be afforded of seeing the unfamiliar plays in the canon, but the usefulness of the policy is minimised if they are severely truncated. Contemporary scholarship suggests that Shakespeare re- wrote the last three acts of a manuscript in possession of his company and added touches to the first two acts. The scene between Clean and Dionyza, after the jealous mother had disposed of her daughter's rival, undoubtedly came from the hand which painted the Macbeths' post-murder guilt. Now that Pericles is hailed as the play which started Beaumont and Fletcher off on their romantic adventures by land and sea it would have been interesting to see more of it than its playing-time of too minutes permitted. It cer- tainly contains all the theatrically effective ingredients of romantic drama. If it is urged that the play must be so presented that a popular success is ensured, then it must have a more lavish and spectacular and less obviously parsimonious production. Paul Scofield's Pericles had the authority and sensitive understanding which characterise all his work, though when he said, "I am wild in my beholding" he could not have looked less enthusiastic. Daphne Slater, who found Juliet far beyond her present powers, was moving and simply effective as Marina. Nugent Monck's pro- duction was less certain in its touch in the romantic than in the effective crudity of the brothel scenes, where John Blatchley played I3oult with a timeless indecency which caused the play to canter across the centuries through Hogarth to contemporary Soho.
It is good news that Sir Barry Jackson has been persuaded to bring this talented young company to London. JOHN GARRErr.
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