THE THEATRE
" Othello." At the New Theatre.—" King Henry IV," Part 1. At Raynes Park County School.
IT will be a thousand pities if the Old Vic Company's production of Othello is limited to the very short run announced on the play- bills. It deserves a lengthy and well-supported season.
Of all Shakespeare's tragedies Othello is, by plot and treat- ment, the most melodramatic and the least convincing. In reading
it, the poetry and the enormously effective dramatic technique suffice to quell those doubts which the story must inevitably raise- Othello's inconceivable gullibility, Desdemona's entire lack of
savoir faire, and !ago's incredible luck. But now Julius Gellner's
production resolves nearly all these doubts, and gives us the play not merely as Shakespeare wrote it, but also, surely, as he felt it. The dialogue throughout is taken at natural speed—that is, about twice as fast as the average Shakespearian delivers it—and is also spoken with every attention to its colloquial import. That all this is achieved without the loss of a single line of poetic value is a yard- stick to the success of the production, which is greatly assisted by Frederick Crooke's ingenious setting; this is not merely in the right mood, but also allows for continuous action without the interruption of a constantly falling curtain.
From certain points of view the part of Othello is easy going for any actor of talent. Good diction, a trong voice, and an imposing presence are sufficient to achieve the minimum of effect. But to paint this amazing character in the round requires an actor of real genius ; and such an actor is Frederick Valk. It is a difficult part to sustain in the opening scenes—a character whose foundations are not fully laid for us, but are rather revealed, horrifically enough, when the moment of crisis comes. But Valk, from his first entry, succeeds in conveying the smouldering simplicities of the dusky general in a manner which keys us for the expected doom. And in the last act he gives us the privilege of seeing a really great per- formance in terms of pure tragedy ; out of many instances the opening of the famous final speech may be mentioned, for it is played not as a soft prelude to horror, but with the strength which the commanding personality of a great general would demand.
Against this magnificent tinder-box of a performance strikes the flint of Bernard Miles' Iago. This player has eschewed the easy course of presenting Iago as a character dripping with satanic evils; instead we see a human being, scheming wickedness in the whole range from malice to murder, and almost—but never quite—a victim to his own jealous impulses. As pieces of pure stagecraft his play- ing of the soliloquies which end at least three of the cardinal scenes of the drama are an example to all actors.
It remains only to add that Hermione Hannen is a sympathetic Desdemona ; that Laurence Payne plays Cassio as well as, if not better, than it has ever been played; and that Freda Jackson's Emilia would walk away with the whole show were it not suitably matched by the others.
At the other end of the theatrical scale may be recorded a courageous and very successful production of King Henry IV, Part I. by the boys of Raynes Park County School, where the annual pro- duction of a Shakespeare play has become quite an event for those in the know. Here we had a first-class Falstaff, a Hotspur with all the necessary fire and fury, a cleverly portrayed Glendower, and a very moving interlude in the form of a version of " Greensleeves " sung by Lady Mortimer to a charmingly played string accompani- ment. Most important, however, is the clarity of diction and atten- tion to word-sense, which seems to be the special perquisite of schoolboys when they arc directed by a person of sensibility and
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