The Drama in Hammersmith
After fourteen years Sir Nigel Mayfair is to end his association with the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith. Henceforth he will devote himself to muting, and oecasion- ally to producing, in the West. End. At the Lyric his policy as a manager combined with his technique as it producer to found, in a very short time, is theatrical tradition which was as unmistakable as it was difficult to analyse. It was all individual and a consistent. tradition, and it. had its reward. It rediscovered merit. in old plays and presented them in a manner which nicely blended impudence with respect, and to which only the' pedants could object as meretricious. The Beggar's Opera ran for nearly 1500 performances. Satire Mau Wycherley to Wilde, burlesque from The Knight al the Burning Pestle to The Critic, and, latterly, the witty moralizing: of Mr. A. P. Herbert's comic operas, have all taught their audiences something about. the essentials of English comedy. Indeed, Sir Nigel has put Hammersmith so definitely ." on the map " that its name can lie used, without any of its topographical connotations, to denote an influence and not a sidairb.
Previous page
