PETER USTINOV COMEDY

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27408, 22 July 1954, Page 9

PETER USTINOV COMEDY

PRODUCTION BY N.Z. PLAYERS

With the final performance of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” still two weeks away, Richard Campion has announced that the New Zealand Players will return to Christchurch on their spring tour with “The Love of Four Colonels,” a post-war cohjedy by the brilliant English actor-playwright, Peter Ustinov. “The Love of Four Colonels” not only had an unusually long run in London, but has been outstandingly successful in Europe and New York.

Set in occupied Europe, this lighthearted comedy is exactly what its title suggests, the pursuit of a lady by a jeep-ful of Allied colonels. All things to all men, the lady is an equal challenge to the Frenchman, the Englishman, the Russian and the American, and a welcome diversion from the boring routine of their administrative duties.

Peter Ustinov is one of the most versatile men of his generation. Still only 32, he is equally gifted as an actor and playwright, and equally at home directing a film (“Top Secret”) as he is before the cameras (Nero in “Quo Vadis”). It is not unusual for Ustinov to have more than one of his plays running in London while he is himself under contract to British or American film interests.

It has been decided that the Players’ spring tour will open in Dunedin and continue on an itinerary of 19 towns in September and October.