STAGE AND SCREEN
THE THEATRE
MR. SYDNEY CARROLL'S fifth season seems likely to surpass its predecessors in both climatic clemency and dramatic achievement. The present production is certainly one of the smoothest and most successful yet seen. Its setting is as simple as could be ; a plain background of shrubbery, and a bare stage backed by low rostrum and diminutive arch. This latter is particularly effective as a frame for the statue scene, and if on another occasion it suggests the last bathing- machine on the sea-coast of Bohemia with the tide a long way out, why, there's the humour of it.
There is no nonsense about Mr. Robert Atkins. He has cut the text with circumspection, and his production is fast and straightforward. We are spared the tiresome penultimate scene in which three gentlemen laboriously tell each other what we already know, and other similar superfluities are cut away, leaving the action free to run trippingly. The costumes and stage-pictures are everywhere excellent, and the sheep- shearing with its " gallimaufry of gambols " is a delight. As the dusk deepens, and the lights are slowly raised, the performance takes on the shape of fantasy. We forget what Warburton called " the meanness of the fable and the extra- vagant conduct of it," and surrender to a fairy-tale, enchanting to the eye and the ear.
The standard of acting is high, partly perhaps because, in such a setting, beauty of voice, clarity of diction and sim- plicity of gesture have perforce to take the place of would-be subtleties of all kinds. Even so, Miss Fay Compton's Paulina stands out as a performance fully realised and expressed. It is tempting to enlarge upon its excellence, but let it suffice .to say that it could not possibly be better. Mr. Jack Hawkins does wonders with the savage fury of Leontes, the Hermione of Miss Phyllis Neilson Terry and the Autolycus of Mr. Leslie French are both fine performances, while Mr. Ion Swinley handles Time's winged chariot with great beauty. There is also a spirited, and - shamefully anonymous, performance by the bear. The poor creature is only allowed a few moments in a dark corner of the stage, where it nibbles a morsel or two of the adjacent boskage as hors d'oeuvres before polishing off Antigonus in the wings.
Finally, a plea for the greater support of Mr. Sydney Carroll's venture. There are no doubt many who have purposely avoided the Open Air Theatre, believing the whole proceeding to be amateurish and uncomfortable. Let them be assured that it is neither. The seating varies from the simple to the sybaritic, the acoustics are admirably reinforced by amplifiers, and the productions reach a high level. Doubters are advised to select " the hottest day prognostication pro- claims," and set forth to discover what Mr. Carroll can provide in the way of " Tales, Tempests and such like drolleries."
RUPERT HART-DAVIS.
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