Word: mr
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...comic scenes, full of bawling, bibulation, and bawdry, appear to have been written as noisy relief from the prevailing mood of quiet delicacy. But this mood is enunciated with such graceful strength in the set, that although Mr. Benthall puts his actors through all the burps and stumbles common in Shakespearean slapstick (or at least allows them a free hand in this respect), they never seem coarse or even very vigorous. The basis of the comic subplot is the duping of Malvolio, the puritanical steward, by a group of cheerful tosspots--a little joke which has occasionally struck critics...
Perhaps these comic scenes are really hilarious; they did not strike me that way, but everyone around me at the theatre was laughing fit to kill. At any rate, Mr. Benthall has certainly made them pleasant enough, with not much help from Shakespeare except for Sir Toby's great line to Malvolio: "Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes...
...well-trained in doing it; and she does it, on the whole, quite well. The extent to which this--and little more--can be said about nearly the whole company is an indication of the extent to which this Twelfth Night is a group effort. Set, costumes (also by Mr. Heeley), and music are more important to the success of the production than is usually the case. This success rests finally on the subtlety with which these elements, and the acting, were made to combine and to complement each other and the text; probably, therefore, (though...
Fortunately, the role (and the play) is almost actorproof, and anyway Mr. Harvey was frequently satisfactory in quieter moments. In the supporting cast, Joseph O'Connor was an excellent Chorus, and Richard Wordsworth and Dudley Jones made more of Pistol and Fluellen than anybody, including Shakespeare, could have expected...
Margaret Courtenay as Gertrude stirs up a small storm with Mr. Neville in the Closet Scene, but everybody else is calmly, gracefully in the vein. Oliver Neville (Claudius), Joseph O'Connor (Polonius), John Humphry (Laertes), and David Dodimead (Horatio) play the most important parts, and all are guaranteed free from any active ingredients...