' WHY ACT SHAKESPEARE ? '
REBECCA WEST versus BEN GREET
William Shakespeare in the Chair
THE library and the theatre have long contended for the honour of possessing
Shakespeare at his best. The literary critic shudders at the cutting and adapting that preface the presentation of one of Shakespeare's plays on the modern stage. Why act Shakespeare, he says, if he is to be at the mercy of adapters and producers and scene-designers and stars? Read him, and enjoy the plays as he wrote them. The man of the theatre contends that Shakespeare, another man of the theatre, wrote for the stage, and on the stage alone can he be enjoyed. These are the points of view that one may expect Miss Rebecca West , the briHiant writer and literary critic, and Mr. Den Greet, the veteran Shakespeare producer, to take tonight.