"King John." By William Shakespeare. Produced by the O.U.D.S. at
Oxford - witEN we see King John we are reminded of what is known in pyrotechnical circles as a Set Piece. There it stands, in the dusk before the display, a sprawling and precarious frame- work : gaunt, gawkish, on the whole rather forbidding. We have our doubts about it. When it is lit, the doubts arc only partly dispelled.. Fire bustles out with a furious crackling along the structure ;. and presently a lurid design is stamped upon. he darkness. The pattern is ambitious, but its ambitions are ill-co-ordinated. There is symmetry in details, but none in the general effect. The pother and the glare were subordinated to no central purpose ; and that crackling noise was on the whole monotonous. We are disappointed, and a little confused.
But the play has its virtues ; and in the O.U.D.S. treatment of it these virtues were firmly seized and forcibly presented. A vigorous .delivery of the verse ; formal but constructive grouping ; and confident, straightforward acting illumined and made interesting the blurred tapestry which Shakes- peare's text suggested. Mr. W. G. Devlin easily persuaded us to ignore the gulf between a national hero and a wicked uncle, and ,played the bad king with fiery ability. Mr. 0. P. E. Reed gave the. Bastard his head, and they took their fences in terrific style ; though a surer sense of comedy might perhaps have made more of that rough wit which Faulcon- bridge shares with Edmond. Mr. P. B. P. Glenville made a smooth and forceful Pandulph ; and Miss Eileen Thomdike and Miss Dorothy Massingham heroically sustained the woes of Elinor and Constance. To the undergraduate producers, Mr. Hunt and Mr. Playfitir, credit must go for a workmanlike and unaffected presentation, marred only by some unfortunate dresses, and distinguished by occasionally excellent lighting.
The closing speech of the play, magnificently ranted by the Bastard-
" Come the three corners of the world in arms, And we shall shock them. Nought shall make us rue, If England to itself do rest but true."
—was received by the audience with great enthusiasm. Per- haps they found it a refreshing antidote to public utterances on a similar subject in another part of Oxford.
PETER FLEMING.
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