Pictorial Shakespeare, 1880-1890 - eTheses Repository - University ...

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rushing water" in the forest where BSme Kati banner's troupe
of child dancers disported themselves. The scenery was "an
honour to the Haymarket Management" (fhe Era.5 January 1889).
In the second of its notices The Saturday Review applauded the
manager*a lack of pretension:
The charm of this production is that, although
brought out without any flourish of trumpets, or
even a precursory pamphlet, it is as artistically
mounted, and as elaborately stage-managed, as though
it had been arranged for a lengthened run. It will
interest and surprise many to see how admirably
a company, with only two or three extraneous
additions, which has hitherto been associated with
modern drama, quietly adapts itself to the requirements
of a rollicking Elisiabethan comedy,
(19 January 1889)
In Truth it was observed that, despite the Hayraarket's advertising
policy, the performance was notable for its ensemble rather
than any star":
not any very special individual merit, but a
harmony of interpretation, an even-ness of tone,
a spirit of co-operation that are in themselves
extremely creditable*
(10 January 1889)
The Times enjoyed Sullivan's score and found the revival "one
of the most picturesque of its kind'1 (3 January) and the only
reservation expressed with regard to the mise-en-»scene in ^The
Illustrateu Sporting ancl Dramatic News was the suspicion that
the "final scene was "a little pantominiey" and that aome
costunes iair;ht be improved (26 January).
This general applauce for the staging was qualified by
some criticism of the manager's o;vn retina: it was a triumph
of sorts, but the padding and elaborate facial make-up to which
Tree resorted were an evident strain on his ener ieo. He was
obliged to isr-urae a "fat" voice, without bein^ able to relax
his voc .1 c iDrds at the annropricte moments, jiving his lines
an obtrunive tension. The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic
News suggested that this tension :.VPS the cause of his speaking
"in one tone of cumbrous gruffneso which puts all the rest into
the background" - "A performance by effort ic. not master of
itself in the incidentals of detail". In The Academy Wedmore
complained that Falstaff's "golden temper" was missing: