THE THEATRE.
THE KNIGHT OF THE BURNING PESTLE," BY FRANCIS BEAUMONT AND JOIN FLETCHER, AT THE KLNGSWAY THEATRE.
Soan; members of the audiences at the Kingsway Theatre go to see a play written by Beaumont and Fletcher, some go to see a play produced by Mr. Nigel Playfair. Ales! both sets of amateurs are doomed to a certain measure of disappointment. Somehow Mr. Playfair has not caught the spirit of the piece. In its present translation on to the stage we miss almost entirely the suavity of the original. The citizen and his wife, though both act cleverly (and he is admirably fat), have not caught the holiday humour. Miss Betty Chester, clever actress as she obviously is, has completely misunderstood the spirit of her part. Citizen's wife was meant to be all contented motherliness and plumpness—Miss Chester has made her the giggling young wife of an old husband. Ralph looks well, even acts well, but lacks abandon.
However, it is not on the whole the acting that makes the piece disappointing, for there is a great deal of very good indi- vidual work. For example, Miss Sydney Leon as Luce is very pretty ; Mr. Halliwell Hobbes as Venturewell gives a delightful beetle-browed, saturnine performance, as does Miss Barton as Mistress Merrythought. Jasper was a delightful lover, and Miss Hermione Baddeley as the horrid little snivelling mother's darling Michael is perfectly delightful. Mr. Frederic Austin's music is charming. Then, says the reader, why are you disappointed if acting and music are so good ? What do you want ? Indeed it is very hard to isolate the jarring element. Perhaps the way to approach the analysis of it is to consider all the qualities we generally admire in Mr. Nigel Playfsir's work. In the first place, perhaps we applaud the wonderful way in which he usually pulls his caste together ; he has an extraordinary }mach in his selection of players, and, when they are chosen, a still more extraordinary trick of making them combine into a perfection of team-work, and a power of making them speak verse or decorated prose. For example, we believe that many of the singers in his present Beggar's Opera had very little acquaint- ance with acting before, and that their present almost perfect stage-craft is due to his teaching. After unity in acting, we expect a certain scholarly beauty in decor and dresses. As a rule he has a wonderful eye for colour and, one would judge, a very considerable knowledge of historical costume.
Surely, then, The Knight of the Burning Pestle, which exhibits almost the negation of most of these qualities, is a kind of left. handed production. It seems as if Mr. Playfair had been too much immersed in superintending the affairs of The Beggar's Opera—he is, apparently, to take a duplicate production to America—to give his full attention to the Kingsway affairs, and so—rudderless, the ship has drifted. Alas ! that it should be so, for if a first-rate play is badly produced by a first-rate producer,
it is indeed one up for the Devil. TARN.
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