"Hamlet." At the Scala.
THE THEATRE
Ii is not often that Hamlet is being played simultaneously at two London theatres, and a comparison between the production at the New Theatre and this at the Scala is inevitable. Donald Wolfit's is a more mature and weightier performance than Robert Helpmann's, and he has the advantages of experience and greater vocal resource. His is, indeed, a fine, all-round performance, and he presents an older Hamlet, and perhaps for that reason, partly, a robuster and less sensitive one. The question of Hamlet's age is not very im- portant. Since Hamlet says he remembers Yorick, whom the first gravedigger declares to have been twenty-three years in the grave, he should be at least over twenty-six ; but I always imagine Hamlet as young, certainly not over thirty. Youthfulness is not a question of age merely, and for me Mr. Wolfit's Hamlet, in spite of its many great virtues, lacks a certain youthful sensitiveness and impulsive- ness. On the other hand, his gestures and timing are significant and impressive, and he has the power where necessary, which Mr. Helpmann did not always have. In the scenes with the Players and with the Queen, Mr. Wolfit was much more dignified and impressive, and he was exceedingly well supported by Grace Lane as the Queen and Rosalind Iden, who began rather poorly as Ophelia, but redeemed her weak beginning by a truly fine per- formance in the mad scene. Richard Goolden's Polonius was quite excellent, but the weakest performance was—as it always is, for some reason—that of the King. It is a great pity that we never see an adequate Claudius in Hamlet, for the role of the King is so important that a feeble performance detracts greatly from the general effect. As a production, Mr. Wolfit's is less elaborate, but in some respects better than that at the New Theatre. The ghost scenes are more effective ; even the Players' scene loses nothing in its greater simplicity, but the omission of the final Fortinbras scene was a bad mistake, and this scene was one of the triumphs of the Tyrone Guthrie production. JAMES REDFERN.
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