• . CONTEMPORARY ARTS
THEATRE
The Tempest. By William Shakespeare. (Memorial Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon.)
ANYONE who did not see Mr. Michael Benthall's production last year, when Mr. Michael Redgrave played Prospero, might be forgiven for feeling that here was another of those cases of a producer enjoying himself at the expense of the actors and author. For the island is full of what amounts to gadgets—sprites and goblins, fireworks and transparencies—which this year often seemed to be superimposed on the performance rather than to form a natural and integral part of it. The difference between the impression made on us by The Tempest of 1951 and 1952 is due to the difference between Mr. Redgrave's Prospero and Sir Ralph Richardson's. The former was a magician, the latter is an illusionist. Mr. Rcdgrave's attitude to his supernatural agents was commanding, yet at the same time wary, vigilant, rather anxious : very like a huntsman's attitude to hounds. To Sir Ralph the sprites and monsters are little more than the goldfish in his bowl are to a conjuror—stage properties whose punctual appearances and disappearances are managed with a complacent, almost blasé dexterity. His performance is throughout flat and naturalistic ; he summons Arid l without raising his voice, as though Ariel was a very well-trained sheepdog, and his Prospero,. though human and likeable, is dangerously deficient both in power and in the quality of wonder.
We are given, by way of recompense, a singular and brilliant Arid. Miss Margaret Leighton really does manage to personify a spirit—a lithe, fleet, aloof being, bound to the earth by loyalty to her master, drawn to the air by yearning for freedom ; it is a performance of great skill and beauty. Mr. Michael Hordern's Caliban is very good too, the man and the monster being nicely blended ; but he does not get much help from Trinculo and Stephano, who can be a good deal funnier than most of Shakespeare's comic characters. Miss Zena Walker is an excellent Miranda, and Mr. Raymond Westwell's garrulous but authoritative Gonzalo stands out among a posse of courtiers who seemed if anything to be slightly duller than they usually are. Mr. Loudoun Sainthill's scenery and costumes emerge with very great credit from a second inspection.
PETER FLEMING.
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