The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1924-03-23
Seeing Things at NIGHT
BY HEYMOOD RROUN

| NEW YORK, March 20.--We find
more and more that we have an open
mind on the subject of the Shakespeare
plays, and, if pushed to it, we will
admit that by open we mean untidy.
Pretty nearly anybody with :. ringing
tone and a stout-hearted look can
wheedfe us this':way and that about
Shakespeare and. it isn't till long after
wards that we find our carping spirit
able to lift its head again.
We saw James X. Hackett play
Macbeth" In common with all the
other New Workers who had seen
Hacketts Macbeth before he left us
for foreign parts, and then had read the
reports from England and France on
the performance as it seemed over there
we wanted to get another look at it
rand find out whether it was ourselves
or the foreigners who were so com
pletely at fault.
Unfortunately we still do not know.
As long as Harkett doomed ana
trumpeted at us, we were under the
spell. We liked the sound. We al
ways liked the sound of Shakespeare.
anyway. And we decided that the
explanation of the Paris success, if
no other, could well be the delight of
Paris audiences at the robust melody
of Hackett's reading,
As for this Macbeth himself, we
know no more than we ever did what
he was like when he appeared before
Shakespeare as something to be writ
ten down. Maybe he was n mere must
cal windbag,, hypnotized 10y the
sound of - own voice, in which case
Ilackett rel,rOduces him for us TO per-
lection. But maybe he was also
something else. Maybe lie was really
an incarnation of approximations guilt.
never quite smart enough to resist
either the witehessor his wife, but
on the whole wicked rather in his
weakness than in his strength. In
this case, Hackett is inadequate. He
gives; us no clues, All he does is
to roar and to gesture, with n COM
motion that might mean almost any
thing The advantages of a clear per
ception of Macbeth before YOU go to
see 1lackett at all are clear enough.
1t may very well be\ that the whole
school of Shakespeare an acting of which
he is the arch-type is built on the
assumption that YOU learned your Mac
beth anyhow in high school. and that
you went TO a performance not for
enlightenment, hut for. confirmation.
We might even go So far as 10
risk a generalization as follows: thar
if the PLAYER joins You in your high
Schooled Expectation of Shakespeare
play, seeing merely that it is done
beautifully fH; YOU. he COMES under the
head of old-fashioned actor. Ii he
undertakes an cxplora ton of his own,
,hc isn't.
John Barrymore. plunged into the
depths of Richard III. and of Hamlet.
We came away from those two perfor-
mances with some new notions to chew
over. But We may well doubt whether
BaTymore's Richard bad the ma jesty
Of 'ManSfield'S, or whether his Hamlet
had the pare beauty Of Booth's.
But we came away from iIaokptt'S
Macbeth with nothing but oar orisi-
nal eonfusions. On the y'hole. we are
still Of the opinion that Macbeth is
pretty poor play. and that Macbeth
himself is of lot less spiritual con
sequence than has been made out.
Familiar Quotations
The more we go to see Shakespeare
the, more we are reminded of the man
who canie away from. Hamlet saying
IL is certainly full of familiar quo
tations. - In ia. t. We would IKE 20
see what would happen if Nc could
nave Il generation. entirely unverSed
IN 'Nh 'ktspggrr, re,ntrotiu I'd to his
PLAYS Some OF Shakes. nare would un-
survive The muSi Of
ite verse would De almost aS musical.
II we had, never heard # before. But
what about the philosophy about
the characters! Just suppose that
old Macbeth had to make his way