THE THEATRE • DAVID G_ARRICK " AT THE QUEEN'S.
by get the same sort of a shock at the Queen's Theatre as when you hear a very beautiful, well-turned-out girl speak and she utters brainless inanities with the voice and accent of Brixton. The " book " of David Garrick is, on the whole, more completely weak-minded than anything I have ever seen on the stage. However, it was not to listen either to music or words that I went, but to see Mr. Paul Shelving's decor— and that is beautiful. Strongly under the influence of Mr. Lovat Fraser in his Beggar's Opera mood, Mr. Shelving yet has plenty of learning and plenty of sense of colour of his own. What he lacks at present is a complete feeling for ensemble. He is so full of ideas for beautiful individual dresses that he has not the heart to be sometimes plain and steady and unremark- able, and thus to show up his best achievements. The result is a wealth of good detail and a slight general restlessness of effect. Also he is occasionally caught by the plot. For instance, a red coat with gold braiding and a green looked quite well in an ensemble. But later this mixture was left alone in an orange, black and lemon room with abominable effect.
The dresses of some masqueraders in the first act are, perhaps, the most happily conceived. There are a hooded woman's dress of white silk relieved with black and touches of viridian green, a lemon-coloured and blue dress with a very wide hoop, a man's yellow and gold dress with a mask and fantastic head-dress, a Bluebeard and Punchinello, which were all very good and very learned, as was not, however, the architecture.
Not being an architect, I cannot pretend to criticize the painted arohitecture of the second and third acts with professional authority, but I do attribute a certain discomfort at the sight of these sets to the coarseness and ill-balanced proportions of the mouldings, pilasters and other embellishments. They re- minded me less of any authentic eighteenth-century architecture than of a twentieth-century tea-shop.
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