A selection has here been made from the reports received from our correspondents, those which present material of a particularly interesting kind being printed wholly or largely in their entirety. 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.

Australia

The Old Vic visited Australia in 1948 presenting Richard III (along with two other non-Shakespearian plays). In 1949-50 the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Company brought productions of Macbeth and Much Ado about Nothing. These were the last professional companies to play Shakespeare in Australia until the John Alden Shakespearian Company, an amateur Australian group, became professional in December 1951. This company started with a production of King Lear which ran for six months in Sydney. The repertoire now includes A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Othello and The Tempest will soon be added.

The National Theatre Movement of Australia in Melbourne, an organization which receives financial support from the State of Victoria, has produced three Shakespearian plays during the year. They started with a semi-professional production of The Taming of the Shrew with Petruchio and Katherina portrayed by professional English actors while the rest of the cast were local amateurs. Later in the season Two Gentlemen of Verona and The Merchant of Venice were presented.