, 4 The Duchess of MaIfl." At the Haymarket.
THE THEATRE
IT is very rare to find that a long-established reputation is not justified, and this superb production of The Duchess of Malfi makes no exception, but is sufficient to prove the greatness of Webster's tragedy as acclaimed by Lamb and the best English critics for centuries. It is indeed a magnificent play, which rivets our attention unfailingly from the brilliant opening scene—which plunges us into the heart of the story—to the death of the noble Duchess ; after which a contemporary audience may find itself lacking the staying- power of the Elizabethans and think the scenes in which the guilty murderers meet their just fate superfluous. I was astonished to see that one of the London dailies called the play "out-moded,' which statement shows a woeful lick of imagination and seriousness in any writer or these times, when the bloodthirsty, sadistic horrors practised for years in German concentration camps put the crimes of Webster's and other Elizabethan "tragedies of blood" quite in the pale—but also show how much deeper into human nature the dramatists of our classic period were used to dig.
Great drama requires great acting, and I am glad to say that in this fine and deeply satisfying production it gets it. Peggy Ashcroft portrays the noble simplicity of the unhappy Duchess with an unselfconscious art and a purity of style few actresses can command, and only wants a trifle more grandeur to be perfection. John Gielgud's representation of her twin-brother Ferdinand is masterly and one of the subtlest, most finished pieces of acting he has ever given us. If Leon Quartermaine's charm were less natural, and more devilishly' calculated his performance as the Cardinal would also have been beyond criticism, as is Cecil Trouncer's magnificent per- formance as Daniel de Bosola. All good critics have agreed that Webster's invention of this character is an outstanding example of dramatic creation, and those who wonder how it is that honest, loyal men can become the tools of unscrupulous, treacherous and blood-thirsty villains can find in Webster's Bosola a convincing exposition of how and why it can happen. The character of Bosola, indeed, is one of those illuminating revelations by means of which great art helps to explain the actualities of life. As for the character of Ferdinand, it alone is sufficient to prove that long befoie psycho-analysis and other semi-scientific jargon of the psycho- logists a gifted writer could delve quite as far into human character as a Freud or any other quasi-medical specialist.
A final word of praise must be added for the Antonio of Leslie Banks, the Julia of Marian Spencer and the Cariola of Joy Harvey. The setting by Roger Furse. and the costumes by Beatrice Dawson were admirable. It is a great pleasure to see the Haymarket Theatre—perhaps the most beautiful in London—so worthily occupied, and our American friends ought not to lose the opportunity of seeing this perfectly sized, magnificent theatre and one of our finest companies acting in it. It may be centuries before such a satisfying piece of theatre architecture is
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