Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-04-22

the pace and rhythm of that production.
Sut here in THE Merry wives of Wind
sor' Mr.. Ordynsli has had free rein.
He has been working with stage sets by
I Urban which he fully comprehends which
are in fact, the kind of sets he was trained
to work in by his master, Reinhardt, and
he has had, besides, a good cast of eX-
perienced actors, led, of course by Miss
Crosman, whose Rosalind is still a fra
grant memory. who has the style and the
amplitude for poetic drama, The result
Is revitalized production of asplay that,
when mounted at the New Theatre a few
years ago. seemed about as dead as play
we'll could be-
Moreover, being in perfect sympathy
with the Urban settings, Mr.. Ordynski
has been able really to styletize the pro-
dnction. Neither scencally nor in the cos.
fumes and stage management is this pro-
duction nearly so bizarre in style as
Barker's midsummer Nights Dream"
Nobody would call II frealtish. But none
the less It is Enthusiastically different from
the Shakespearean productions of the last
generation. You have only 10 witness 1t
just after seeing Trees production of
Henry VIII" to realize the gulf. 1t isn't
necessary to hold brief just now either
for the new method the old. Both
chance to be doing business. The point is
that II you do Shakespeare we'll by the old
method, or II you revitaIize him by a new
method. in either case you make his plays
live-and when you make them live. far
from spelling ruin, Shakespeare spells
delight to thousands of people.
The set which is most used in this pro-
duction of the Merry Wives is the street
scene. on one side of the stage is the
Garter Inn, on the other side Mistress
Pages house. Between them is a ground
cloth representing water. as the Japanese
represent 1t, by sand in their gardens, with
stones and rushes on the banks This
stream is spanned at the back of the
stage by a half moon bridge. which goes
up gracefully against the back drop, on
which are painted in broad patches of
rich color roofs and spires Of the town.
Every character who crosses from one side
or the stage TO the other has to use this
bridge. Much Of the action takes place
upon 1t, as. for instance the duel between
Doctor Caius and his terrified opponent.
All the costumes designed by Willy Pog-
any, are rich and gay and picturesque.
and the constant procession of them over
this bridge, the constantly shifty picture
OF figures lifted up above the stage level
against the back drop of deep reds and
blues, makes a feast for the eve totally
unlike the stiff, old-fashioned posing OF
crowds in the Tree production, under arti-
dynsli together have worked out this
continuous pictorial pattern, which is
never forgotten, is one of the things we
hcial spotlighfs That Urban and Or
mean by a styletlzed production.
Another feature or the production whicn
intensities its style, but which to us seems
too German, too fussy, Is the incessant
pace of the farcical scenes between the
minor personages so that the thing has
all OF the speed and hustle and good deal
OF the noise of Cohan farce at its worst
We remember an undergraduate of an
American college who came home from a
(aRTn1anW Euh he
hardt's production on revolving stage Of
Twelfth Night" wherein the characters
walked around on the moving stage from
one scene right into the next "It was
mostly a long procession Of sOuses," was
our undergraduates description. We feel