GIELGUD

ttelling him that the version we are playing is a translation of M. Komisarjevsky's own - taken from the acting script of the Russian - he tells me the accepted version here is done from the published script, issued, as often happens abroad, on the morning of the first production. This one has various additions and alterations made by the author during rehearsals - including the passages you noticed in the last act, and with the asides and soliloquies rearranged, much I think to the play's advantage. You may be right as to the reading of the passage in Actio being unnecessary - myself I think the jarring effect is partly because the other asides ('he's mine', in Act III, for instance) are omitted - these were of course far more usual and accepted in 1900 than they are today - and plartly, as you say, because it serves to force the point. However I have now understressed the emphasis and I believe it is better. The other sections you noted in that act are exactly meant as you interpret them - and I am greatly relieved to hear thy carry with this meaning, as the producer directed us to give them with that suggestion, and I was doubtful whether I was able to give the impression he wanted with so few actual lines to speak. After Shakespeare's wealth of language it is strange to be playing such very economical prose, (though non the less fascinating by contrast)..., 2 sides 8vo., with original autograph envelope, 31 Avenue Close, NW8, postmarked 17th May