CONTEMPORARY ARTS
THEATRE
“ A Midsummer Nights Dream." by William Shakespearea,(Old Vic.) Tim Old Vic Company is not a strong one, and it is to Mr. Guiluie's credit that he has imposed on this production a patina of quality and style. It may not at all times strike one as being the right style (Miss Moiseiwitsch's settings, for instance, are bedeviled by arbori- cultural abnormalities which have little to commend them), but at least the whole thing has been raised well above the pedestrian level of the Old Vic's recent Othello. The fairies in particular are handled with great virtuosity. Oberon and Titania are shown as eerie, darting, rather malign creatures, uncertain of themselves, genuinely dreading the daylight ; Puck is a boy; carrying out his magic errands with zest but not with complete reliability. Miss Jill Balcon makes a good Titania, in the " wild sweet witch " vein ; but Oberon and Puck, though they make us aware of the producer's conception, are not quite good enough actors to subdue us to it. Of the humans, the proletarian element, led by Mr. Paul Rogers' rather uninspired Bottom, are encouraged to present Pyramus and Thisbe on Crazy Gang lines. This causes much merriment, but seems to me unnecessary. Mr. Rupert Davies declaiming Snout's part in the play with a straight, rather anxious face and a reproving glance at interrupters, shows how effective a more naturalistic approach can be ; I would rather see the rustic amateurs trying desperately hard than failing spectacularly and falling over each other in heaps. It is, unexpectedly, the lovers who steel the play and make this production memorable. Or rather, to be accurate, it is Miss Irene Worth as Helena. This very accomplished actress has what I can only describe as a gremlinesque quality which, when, as here, she is playing high comedy, lends to her performance an original and disarming appeal ; her brilliantly successful attack on this not particularly rewarding part suggests (among other things) that she ought to be cast, at the earliest possible opportunity, as Beatrice. Miss Jane Wenham's bantam-weight Hermia provides an admirable foil. Miss Jane Bashford's Hippolyta has a good, tawny presence, and Mr. Douglas Campbell is an agreeable Theseu's. " Worthwhile" is, with apologies, the best epithet with which to sum up the evening's entertainment.
PETER FLEMING.
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