World Film and Television Progress (1937-1938)

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THEATRE William Devlin as Gladstone A recent biographer discovered two Mr. Gladstones, one the son of the Liverpool business man, the other the Oxonian. The biographer had some excuse; he had to find some way of explaining the apparent inconsistencies of Gladstonian policy, but his example has been too generously followed. The entertainment seeker in London will have great difficulty in avoiding one of the many Mr. Gladstones on view, all of them different and none of them entirely satisfactory. In fact, Hugh Williamson's play at the Gate Theatre, Mr. Gladstone, was written to right the wrong being done to the Liberal sermoniser elsewhere. Hugh Williamson makes no bones about there being more than one Gladstone, nor does he bother to attempt the reconciling of apparently irreconcilable material. His portrait is of the Gladstone whose picture still frowns down from the walls of workmen's houses in the North of England : the Gladstone who understood the art and the importance of mobilising the radicalism of the newly enfranchised masses against the older Tory and Whig politicians : the Gladstone of later years, shown as the spokesman of the masses, the defendant and exponent of liberty and democracy, the opponent of jingoism and imperialism, pictured for us in a series of incidents beginning with his entry into the Bulgarian Atrocities campaign, glimpsing his difficulties with Ireland and the Sudan and ending with his final retreat before the Big Navy politics of the new Liberalism. The incidents are woven together by stressing the relationship between Gladstone and the Queen (who is also hard to dodge this month) contrasted in the opening, where the Queen bids an affectionate farewell to Disraeli, and the end of the play where the Queen, bidding farewell to Gladstone, makes little effort to conceal her dislike of his policy and person and her pleasure at his retirement. The Queen is shown as serving the interests of Tory imperialism and conniving with the Tory Opposition against the Liberal Government. The play has been refused licence for public showing by the Lord Chamberlain, presumably because of its dramatisation of the conflict between the Queen and Gladstone. Yet this conflict existed in fact, and is of historical importance to an understanding of the period, of the Queen and of Gladstone. Whether or no Mr. Williamson's Gladstone is a full and complete one, his version of the conflict with the Queen is undoubtedly close to history. That this play should be banned from the stage, whilst any infantile version of the 'glorious reign' and the 'good and gracious queen' is allowed full scope to mis-teach history, shows that the censorship is used for Party purposes as much in dealing with plays of history as it is for dealing with plays of the contemporary scene. It is a good, workmanlike play, and Mr. William Devlin gives an adequate rendering of the Gladstone dear to the hearts of nineteenth century democracy. Miss Josephine Middleton's Queen looks a bit like Anna Neagle's at times, but is a clever piece of quiet, under-emphasis. * * * Still in the last century — melodrama returns to the Lyceum with Wanted for Murder. It is, however, a much diluted, and enfeebled melodrama. The old Lyceum plays didn't bother about probing the mind of the murderer or explaining his actions : they aimed at thrills pure and simple. Wanted for Murder has all the trappings — elaborate scenic effects, moving stages and, of course, a sprinkling of working class characters who drop their aitches and behave generally in the illiterate manner beloved of the Victorian stage. But the guts are gone : doubt and a slight sophistication hangs over the most dreadful deeds, blunting their effect on us. The murderer doesn't kill because he's a bloody scoundrel : he's the victim of heredity, and the causes of his actions are to be found in the text-books of psychology. So the final curtain brings us an assurance that he will not be hung, for he is insane, which must be a relief because he is acted by the best looking man in the cast and by all rights should have been the hero. Wanted for Murder belongs to the past in one very important aspect : it moves far too slowly for these days of fast moving crime plays and of the cinema. * * * There are a few more 19th century relics, this time at the Queen's. Shakespearian production has speeded up considerably in the last few years, but Gielgud's Richard II is much too slow. The slowing down seems to be due to the littering of the stage with bits and pieces that look as though they came straight from the Gothic Revival of the 19th century, to a costuming which at times makes the stage look like a fancy dress ball, and to a seeking after processional effect which turns the play into pageant on several occasions. Settings, decorations and processions combine to weaken what is otherwise one of the most satisfactory performances of the play for many years. It is when the verse is allowed full sway that the performance rises to greatness : Gielgud, peculiarly suited to the part, brings out the beauty and rhythm of the verse, at times overwhelming in its cadenced melancholy, as few living actors could. Michael Redgraves' Bolinbroke compares badly with Ralph Richardson's of some years back, while Leon Quartermain speaks John of Gaunt's high-spot speech as though he were a High Churchman reciting the 23rd Psalm. Taken for all in all, this is a revival for which we must be grateful, and its success promises well for the projected series of revivals at the Queen's. * * * For the rest, Mr. Priestley has two competent dramas running, both spiced with the Dunne Time Theory — of these we will write more fully next month: Donald Wolfit, who began management of a Shakespearian repertory company with a week at the Wimbledon, begins a week at the King's, Hammersmith, on November 1st; whilst in the world of Vaudeville, the Windmill Theatre brings on its ninety-seventh show, with slightly better comedy than usual, much catering for the artistic worshippers of the body beautiful and impressions by Ernest Shannon, deserving notice if only because he does not impersonate either Maurice Chevalier or Mae West. RICHARD CARR The new series of London Theatre Concerts, arranged by Betty Humby and Haigh Marshall, under the patronage of Mrs. Augustus Ralli and blessed from on high by Sir Thomas Beecham. opened on 10th October at the Cambridge Theatre. The first season is devoted to Mozart. There will be one Sunday concert each month until May. In January, Sir Thomas Beecham himself is giving an orchestral concert. If we are to judge from the first one, these concerts will be excellent. Mr. Haigh Marshall conducted a hand-picked orchestra in a programme which included the March in D major (K445), two piano concertos (K459, K491) Despina's arias from "Cosi fan tutte," and a Sinfonia Concertante for four solo winds. The soloists were Cyril Smith, Nan Maryska, and Betty Humby herself, who commered the show, directed the traffic, altered the interval, changed it back again, and finished by playing the C minor piano concerto (K.491) with one hand tied behind her back. T.F. Arthur Young in "Victoria the Great" 33