THE EDINBURGH FESTIVAL
THE fifth Edinburgh International Festival of Music and Drama has opened in an atmosphere of mild crisis, for all that the streets are crowded with guests bringing pounds and dollars. As an annual event the Festival is firmly established in the tourist calendar, thanks to earlier successes and resourceful publicity ; and that is a fine thing for Edinburgh, for Scotland as a whole. But is its artistic foundation as steady as it might be? This is the question that has been raised not so much by the musical programme (which must inevitably contain a great deal that can easily be heard in other capitals) as by the dramatic, and especially by the choice of Pygmalion, with Miss Margaret Lockwood playing Eliza, as the first play. It is certainly not a critic's idea of a " festival play," whoever is to grace the production, and for that reason no doubt it is hard to resist the suspicion that the authorities had their eye on the box-office rather than the ball, which in their Case should be impeccable quality of matter and manner.
However, Pygmalion it had to be, and since the fact is accom- plished it would be ill-mannered not to say warmly that it is a handsome production and that it is pleasant to see Miss Lockwood • making a good job of Eliza. What a• handicap for this actress has been her widely publicised career in popular filins, and how acutely conscious of. that reputation she must have been on Monday evening, waiting in the wings of the Royal Lyceum Theatre! The published sneers of those' who had seen fit to take easy advantage of that other reputation must have been stinging like hornets, even then. No matter: she held the stage creditably in Mr. Peter Potter's sensible production, and resisted any temptation to inject the sooth- ing syrup of sentimentality into the later passages. The splendid con- versation with the Eynsford-Hills was deliciously done, and raised delighted laughter even from those who had never thought to smile at it again. If Miss Lockwood was a little stiff in the last act, a shade careful, a trifle stilted—why, this was admirable, turning those small errors of grammar and pronunciation into infinitely touching glimpses of the real world of passion and imperfection and poetry • hidden away behind the smooth veneer of Shaw's icy comedy.
It may strike the still aggressive legions of Shavian idolators otherwise, but to me, as one who sees in Pygmalion a well con- structed comedy, dated, and certainly not of the first class, Miss Lockwood's performance was more than merely adequate. It was, indeed, good. Mr. Potter has ensured that a 'proper distance is maintained between Higgins (Mr. Alan Webb) and his creation. Mr. Webb plays the professor as an unattractive fidget, and this one found mightily refreshing ; his- interpretation helped to keep out unwelcome warmth and concentrate attention on the emancipation of Eliza. The play is wisely done in period, and the settings and costumes of Mr. Hutchinson Scott are to be commended warmly.
* * * *
So much for Pygmalion. Next week it is The Winter's Tale, with Mr. Gielgud, already seen by London and eagerly awaited by Scots and visitors from abroad. The week after that brings the Theatre de l'Atelier from Paris with Anouilh's Le Bal des Voleurs and Le Rendez-Vous de Senlis, and Monnier's L'Enterrement.
Meanwhile, at the Assembly Hall one may see again Mr. Tyrone Guthrie's spirited production of Sir David Lindsay's morality Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaites. This revival has caused some grumbling among regular, visitors to the Festival who had hoped for a new spec- tacle, but the demand from abroad has been strong and insistent. Every American and Canadian visitor wants to see it. In this year's production Mr. Guthrie has placed more emphasis on the morality, fearing that otherwise the comic elements (which are comic with a vengeance) might lessen the play's essential seriousness. But once again Mr. Duncan Macrae, a comedian of the first order, brings the house down in this character of Flatterie.
* *
The •Glyndebourne La Forza del Destino is a clear success, and there never was any doubt about Don Giovanni. Orchestral and chamber concerts daily abound ; the Film Festival is well under way • and the town is full of exhibitions. There are too many of these to mention here, and one must rest content with saying that the eXhibition of Spanish' paintings at the 'National' Gallery of Scotland is all the more valuable for including lesser works by the great masters—Velazquez, Zurbaran, Ribera, Goya and Murillo- and a selection from the-minor masters who flourished on the lower
slopes of that most fascinating artistic peak. Lux HAMILTON.
Previous page
