International Notes

Summary

A selection has been made from the reports received from our correspondents, those which present material of a particularly interesting kind being printed in their entirety, or largely so. It should be emphasized that the choice of countries to be thus represented has depended on the nature of the information presented in the reports, not upon either the importance of the countries concerned or upon the character of the reports themselves.

Autralia

An event of outstanding importance took place in April 1956 with the production of Twelfth Night in Sydney by Hugh Hunt on behalf of the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust. This production, in a repertory with two other plays, enjoyed a nine months' tour of Australia, visiting all the capital cities and many others.

Though Dinah Shearing as Viola justly won high praise, it was the production rather than the performances which made theatrical history. Within living memory there had been no native Australian production of a play by Shakespeare which could hope to stand comparison with the imports from Stratford and the Old Vic. This is not to deny many excellent performances by the Alan Wilkie and John Alden Companies —both splendid troupers who have devoted themselves to Shakespeare without adequate resources. Hunt, with Elaine Haxton as designer, gave Australia its first homemade production, setting and costumes which for elegance, taste and delight would have won laurels in Stratford or London.