Theatre: New Plays: Jan. 3, 1927

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Twelfth Night. An ingeniously designed set of scenery permits a swift running-together of scenes in Eva Le Gallienne's production, thus adding greatly to the buoyancy of the presentation. In other people's productions of Twelfth Night, the complicated fortunes of Viola, the shipwrecked maid, in love with the Duke of Illyria in love with the proud Olivia in love with the shipwrecked maid impersonating her twin brother are too frequently allowed to lag into slow comedy only partially relieved by the Bard's verse. Not so in this case. The cast mercifully interpret light comedy in a gay spirit unoppressed by the playwright's reputation. Sometimes the humor is even flavored with slapstick, as in the case of Egon Brecher's Sir Toby Belch, who does. Yet so airily do the players carry off the Shakespearean fancies that the audience readily forgives trivial irreverence avows Twelfth Night to be O. K.

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