Production Of Anouilh Play Disappointing

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31234, 5 December 1966, Page 18

Production Of Anouilh Play Disappointing

A funny thing happened to M. Anouilh at the Elmwood Playhouse on Saturday night He lost Ms sparkle and gained a new play.

“Dinner with the Family” as Anouilh wrote it, concerns a young man, Georges, who is sinking in leech-infested quicksand. He is able to see the strong lifeline thrown to him by Isabelle, the fresh country girl whom he loves, only when he removes from it the slime of his own wishful thinking. This theme underlies a more superficial story so that at first glance the play appears to be no more than light drawing room comedy. The Elmwood Players seldom got beyond the drawing room. Only two performers attempted to penetrate the barrier.

Unfortunately Hunter Bell’s direction was not strongly enough in evidence to make these attempts any more than individual ones which were almost swallowed up in the general confusion. Even the prompt was not awake to the opportunities her role offered.

The part of Georges was played by Peter Brown. This was an unhappy piece of casting. Anouilh’s Georges is a more delicate piece of work than either Mr Brown, or, it would appear, Mr Bell were capable of handling.

Instead of a young man with a sad face and a delicate finesse we were presented with a self-conscious actor, who, in his impatience to finish his lines before he forgot them (which was all too seldom), blindly and blunderingly murdered Anouilh’s sensitively created character. Because of this unaccountable piece of casting the sympathetic focus which Georges should have enjoyed, and which was the only meaning-

ful one in Anouilh’s play, shifted to the villain Jacques, who was played most pleasingly by Jim Hopkins. Although Mr Hopkins needs training and experience he has strong potential which, if developed in the right way, shows great promise for the future. His Jacciues was cynical, sympathetic and excitiing.

He wa s ably supported by Sue Ryan as Barbara, his strong, sophisticated and pathetic wife. Her best work was with Jim Hopkins. Without him she lost some of her poise. Together these two gave the audience a tantalising glimpse of what lay beyond the surface. Bryans Eliott as Delmonte and Marilyn Eales as Mme de Montrachet were an entertaining combination, although Marilyn Eales did not sustain her character with the ease of Bryans Eliott. Shirley Low and Dermott Holland were well cast as Mme and M. Delachaume.

Helen Browning, as Isabelle, was a little too sweet and flighty and lacked the quiet strength needed to indicate the difference between George’s past and future life. The settings were effective and conveyed the play's elegance better than the presentation did. Although this is not one of the Elmwood Players’ more successful productions it is to their credit that the standard of their choice of play remains high. This play will continue at the Elmwood Play House in Fulton avenue until December 10. —J.M.F. Coin Price.— A. 1935 Waitangi crown fetched £325 ait an Auckland Coin Club auction on Saturday.