THE THEATRE
"Much Ado About Nothing." By William Shakespeare. At the Aldwych.
THIS is a competent production of a comedy which is no longer the favourite, either with audiences or with actors, that it used to be. There is a certain archness about Much Ado which pleased the Victorians more than it pleases us ; and the plot, artificial enough already, is levered forward by recourse to so many soliloquies, eaves- droppings, misunderstandings and other implausibilities that an atmosphere of the perfunctory is apt to make itself felt. As Mrs. Inchbald rather stuffily observed, If Beatrice and Benedick had possessed perfect good manners, or just notions of honour and deli- cacy, so as to have refused to become eavesdroppers, the action of the play must have stood still, or some better method have been contrived—a worse hardly could—to have imposed on their mutual credulity." Nor, while the main theme moves ponderously, is there much compensation to be found (as there is, for instance, in Measure for Measure) in the minor characters. The juvenile lead is a cad ; the villain is an arbitrary essay in the saturnine ; and Dogberry- though memories of the Home Guard somewhat enhance his appeal —is not one of the great fools.
The Beatrice-Benedick imbroglio is rich in wit but deficient in humour ; their verbal slapstick develops a situation which, though to everyone else on the stage is screamingly funny, is to us only fairly so. Mr. Robert Donat's Benedick is a solid and effective per- formance, a nice blend of romance and comedy. Miss Renee Asherson partners him with elegance and spirit but there was some- thing missing from her Beatrice, though it was hard to say what it was. Mr. Jay Laurier was a very good Dogberry, Mr. Henry Oscar's Don John was a firm and well-considered study and. Miss Valerie White was a capable Hero. The production, by Miss Fabia Drake, was straightforward but lacked pace. Mr. John Armstrong's
scenery and costumes were admirable. PETER FLEMING.
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