Southern Comedy Group In “Love In A Mist”

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29911, 27 August 1962, Page 11

Southern Comedy Group In “Love In A Mist”

The Southern Comedy Players were last seen in Christchurch in “Johnny Belinda,” and their present production. “Love in a Mist.” which opened at the Theatre Royal on Saturday evening, is very different. “Love in a Mist” is the lightest of comedies and takes play goers back to the kind of play with which the company began touring some years ago.

In this comedy tihe playwright. Kenneth Horne, has extracted all the humour posible from a situation that might be thought too slight to provide entertainment over three acts; and it should be added that the plot is diversified by a good deal of sterling comic characterisation. The landlady and her husband are Exmoor originals: the honeymoon couple, who are never in a position to say “alone, at last.” are sometimes delightfully fatuous: and the intruding “gay couple” prove not to be so gay. after all. In the finish it is the acting ability of the cast that contributes this lion’s share to the success of “Love in a Mist." The six players concerned are all good; and the producer. John Kim. has directed them in his usual discriminating way The curtain rises upon the oarlour of Mr and Mrs Evans’s. Exmoor bungalow, which faithfully preserves, in spite of the passing of time, the standards of lower middle-class comfort that prevailed in, say, 1910 Mrs Evane herself is revealed “laying out” a pattern on a length of material, a job which occupies part of her mind and is only the prelude to more stirring events. Mrs Evans is. in fact, the life and soul of the play. She is a woman of fixed ideas, which she expresses forcibly on all possible occasions. Her asperity is moderated only by her esteem for Mr Evans, whose ability to detect the presence of a corpse or of a guilty couple has never been known to fail In this production Mrs

Evans is played by Ethel Hobbs. This was an excellent performance, in which every line told, and every expression and attitude revealed the dominating personality. Mr Evans, on the other band, has the distinction of appearing frequently on stage without ever uttering a single word. Frank Grayson filled this rather disconcerting role with a good deal of subtlety. Peggy Turvey and Colin Lehmann were the young married couple, Pat and Nigel. No doubt, a honeymoon lends itself to comic treatment: but these two players were clever enough to remove the situation—at least to som’ extent—from the commonplace. Miss Turvey is an actress of pleasing personality, and she has a speaking voice of exceptional range, which she uses most effectively. Mr Lehmann gave Nigel an agreeable but decisive manner, and showed that he had a tactful appreciation of some of the finer shades of the comic business

The other couple. Rose and Howard, were entertaining in a different way. Catherine Moller brought out the re bust vulgarity that is the main trait in Rose’s nature. It would probably be hard to make her a likeable character. although it appeared that the playwright was trying to do this in the last scene of “Ix>ve in a Mist.”

As things turned out. Howard was the unsuspecting victim, after all This was the part taken by Michael Low, who acted in a way that brought before the audience much of the frustration and mental pain Howard was suffering. Mr Low gave a capable performance of a spoilt child more or less grown up.

In conclusion rt may be said that “Love in a Mist." is superficial. though amusing, and that it does prove to be a rather exceptional comedy, in that it vividly re weals the talent and the strength of this company. It is worth seeing for this reason alone. -cxs.