30 APRIL 1921, Page 3

The Phoenix (36 Southampton Street, Strand, W.C. 2) is to

be most heartily congratulated on its fascinating, and in every sense distinguished, rendering of The II/itch of Edmonton at the Hammersmith Lyric on Sunday and Tuesday. But, alas ! it is little use to say this, for the Phoenix performances are spread like the snowflake on the stream=" one moment here, then gone for ever." The play takes us into the very heart of the Elizabethan world and makes us understand that world far better than does the universal, the majestic Shakespeare. The dialogue and story, now innocent to babyishneas, now full of insight and high poetry, now subtle, now clownish, the characterization sometimes crudely absurd, sometimes deeply moving, are each and all a true reflection of that tempestuous ago of contrasts.