THE THEATRE
Ma. DONALD WOLFIT has brought his company to London for a fort- night's season prior to an overseas tour, and playgoers should not lose this opportunity of seeing his production of King Lear, which is one of his greatest successes. Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy which demands exquisite production and brilliant acting of the lightest and most subtle art. Mr. Wolfit's Benedict is not dull, but it-is somewhat ponderous, while Miss Rosalind Iden's Beatrice is lively without being quite irresistible. In other respects the present production lacks the beauty and distinction which are necessary to do .justice to the poetry of the play. Of Laura it can only be said that it is excessively dull, and affords little scope to the gifts of Sonia Dresdel. It is a murder play, but lor the whole of the first act and a good deal of the second it is difficult if not impossible to make out who has been murdered or who was the murderer. This may have created an exciting suspense in the novel reader, but in this dramatised version it is productive only of tedium and irritation. Like Miss Dresdel, Robert Beatty and Raymond Lovell are thrown away in their parts.
JAMES REDFERN.
Previous page
