A thoroughly amusing affair. Of course Mr. PHILLPOTTS shirks his problem, Teddy Copplestone need not have been a bounder (the odds indeed were against it), nor need his cigars, his champagne or his music have been so bad. But then we should have missed a diverting piece of fun and have been saddled with a solemn problem-play unsuited to the (alleged) gaiety of the hour.
The general level of the playing was high, and, after a somewhat nervous opening (and perhaps just a few affectations of the fourth-wall school), the piece swung into a pleasant rhythm.
Mr. ERNEST THESIGER interprets with consummate ability Mr. PHILLPOTTS' amusing and original creation, this puss-in-gaiters Machiavelli, St. George Exon. Miss LILLAH MCCARTHY (Monica), in the familiar rôle of beauty in revolt, had an easy task, which she fulfilled very agreeably. Miss ALBANESI (Eva) put brains and fire and (not at all a negligible gift of the gods) precise enunciation into her work. Mr. FEWLASS LLEWELLYN and Miss MARY BROUGH were quite delightful as old Copplestone and his wife. Mr. CLAUDE KING as Teddy Copplestone had perhaps the most difficult task, a part that by no means played itself, but needed a sustained skill, duly forthcoming. But I think the performance that pleased me most was that of Miss EVELYN WALSH HALL, a name new to me, in the small part of Unity Copplestone, played with a directness and sincerity which was quite distinguished.
Let me add that the flapping of eyelids (to which I have referred in my remarks on The Cinderella Man) is here also a feature. One member of the cast (of my own sex, too) gave a display of virtuosity in this genre which was technically superb.
Two insignificant details of management caused me some amusement. The solemn clang of a gong presaging doom as dire as OEDIPUS'S (and incidentally inaudible to cigarette smokers in the foyer) gives notice of the resumption of the play, while at the end of the Acts the curtain flutters up and down at a feverish pace as if the idea was to get in as many "calls" as possible before the applause stops. Are we as guileless as all that, I wonder? And, anyway, no such manoeuvre was necessary. The applause was hearty, the laughter spontaneous, and anybody who cares for plays made and played with brains should go and see this engaging piece.
T.
