"THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL"

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20988, 17 October 1933, Page 3

"THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL"

PERFORMANCE BY REPERTORY SOCIETY Another large audience witnessed the performance of St. John Hankin's "The Return of the Prodigal" by the Canterbury Repertory Theatre Society at the Radiant Hall last evening. The play—a society comedy which was first produced in 1904 —contains little more than a single part, and its point is merely to emphasise that no man is a ne'er-do-well from choice, but simply because some defect in his make-up prevents him from being a "solid citizen." The main part is taken by Mr Claude Davies, who acts with a zest which shows that he has studied his part as a whole and not line by line, a that he has a vision of the rhythm of the play. Everything he does is schooled to a definite key, thus giving a sense of unity and continuity in a difficult role. Miss Phyllis Wilkinson, Mr W. F. Slack, and Mr Mervyn Bull have something of the same understanding of the need for contiruous development as Mr Davies, and Mrs Maud Buchanan and Mr C. W. Collins are both successful. Others in the cast are Miss Jean Ashworth, Miss Mollie Wilson, Mrs Marion Smail, Dr. Robinson Hall, Colonel F. W. W. Dawson, Mr a Packer Doust, and Mr W. B. Harris. "The Return of the Prodigal," which is being produced by Miss Kiore King, wilJ be staged for the last time to-nigb'