The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-01-18
WHAT LONDON THEATRES ARE
 SHOWING NOW
By K. WALTER

London, January 5.-(Reciprocal News Service. .)-Wandering around the West End you might think that the London stage was at a pretty low ebb The Christmas season brought it's usual flock of pantomimes. Great fun they used to be in the old days when the fun was hearty. And the pretty principal "poy in her tights-but that was before these fiPhts-ridden days. Wonderful, 100, were the transformation scenes, before mechanical effects became so common as to be boresome. There was the harle- quinade, too-the exclusive field then Of rip-roaring slapstick comedy. But the pontomime of today would pass under the American name of burleque; it is still built up around one of the great old fairy-tales of childhood, and that IS all that can be said for it.
 But step aside from the West End, cross Westminster Bridge and lose yourself in slums until you come out in tho Waterloo Road where coster barrows from the, Old Kent Road make a popular shopping center and there you will find .--the last of the long tradition of Surrey Side theatres--the "Old Vic, with its sign out announcing the Christlnas Shakespeare festival. You can go and eat peppermnts and oranges without fear of offense in the big galery-it is one or the larger theatres of London-and see the show for fraction under ten cents Or you can be a real swell and eat choco- lates and have coffee served between the acts in the orchestra stalls" for 5 cents. Behind you in the pit, and crowding the two upper circles will be some of the population of the Waterloo Road and those slums you came through: beside you in the stalls will be Shakespeare .lsA la nf ha stage connoisseurs of acting. perhaps famous critic or two, and mere people like yourself who know their way about.
 The "Old Vic' is the taproot of Shakes peare in England. The Stratford-on- Avon theatre is a mere Shakespeare an- nual; Shakespeare flourshed perennially at the "Old Vic" From September to July there is always a Shakespeare play to be seen there, and not only the plays frequently produced elsewhere but also those which one might have to wait generation to see in a Broadway or West End theatre This season, for instance, they are going to do ''Timon of Athens and "Corioanus.
 But the Christmas Festival programme is naturally made up of the most popular plays they happen to have already pro duced during the current season, two per formances of each. The bills this holi day season are Merry Wives of Wind sor," Macbeth" Henry VI Richard IT," "As You Like ItA and "The Tenn pest" Seats have been booked for all of these plays weeks in advance The en- joyment and enthusiasm of the audiences, every critic agrees. is a mental tonic which they look forward to as respite from the polite boredom or swift . ssing excitement of their usual haunts.
 It is to the ''Old Vie" also that intel- lectual London has been Hooking, in spite of slums and coster barrows, t1 see notable production of ."The Trojan Women" of Eurpides. The first inten- tion had been to give one or two per- formances only of this greatest of all war tragedies. It proved so popular, however, that it appears to have become a per- manent feature of the programme. The production has also been honored by royalty at a special matinee at one of the fashionable West End 1xeatres. It was given twice just, before the holi days, as if to make one all the more thankful for period of rejoicing by it's reminder of the devastating gloom of past wars
 An adaptation by Russell Thorndike of Dlchens Christmas Carol" which I be- leVe has been in America, gave the fes- tlve touch to the festival. Thorndike is one of the producers and leading actors in the present "Old Vic'' company. It was given on double bill with a new NatVity play by Father Andrews. "The Hope of the World" But English aud fences don't care for having their re- hgion put on the stage. and anyhow the religion of the 'Old Vic" and it's aud fences is Shakespeare
 
 Edinburgh university has nearly 800 women medical students.
 Only one man in 200 is more than six feet in iobf