IT is not entirely Mr. Emlyn Williams's fault if his
performance as Shylock does not domi- nate our memories of this most agreeable pro- duction, for in Miss Margaret Webster's hands the familiar play provides more counter- attractions than usual. There is in the first place a witty and beguiling Portia, in whom Miss Margaret Johnston discovers a vein of raillery which becomes the part well. The average Antonio wears the full aspect of a man who is determined to talk to you about his operation; but Mr. Harry Andrews is well above the average, and his merchant is reasonable sort of person for whom we really do feel rather sorry. In the same sort of waY Mr. Basil Hoskins transforms Bassanio frout a rather perfunctory juvenile lead into a We of character and feeling, and Mr. Andrew Faulds, though batting on a much caste' wicket, makes an effective Gratiano. Mr. .101111 Gurley is, almost incredibly, amusing as Lancelot Gobbo, and Mr. Clive Revill makes theatrical history by bringing the Prince of Arragon delightfully to life. So Mr. Williams's Shylock is up against .3 good deal of competition, and although he 's always (as they say on the racecourse) there or thereabouts, he is very far from running Oil with the play. His Jew is small and drab an, greasy, and although it is a most accomplished and carefully considered performance it re; mains somehow insect-like and cold-blooded' as though this grey and squirming creature belonged to 'a different category of life from the other people on the stage. But the wh,°',e production is very well worth seeing, and `i great improvement on Hamlet.
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