GALSWORTHY'S "STRIFE"

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 110, 5 November 1926, Page 11

GALSWORTHY'S "STRIFE"

A TRIANGULAR EPISODE OF THE WAR.

Galsworthy's "Strife'1 was first, produced a good many years ago. Its theme is the futility of strikes; and the futility both of strikes and of "Strife" has been abundantly evidenced in the last dozen years. "Strife" offers l.he picture of a power-drunk extremist on either side. The employers' extremist is an old, mnsterfui man with a long record of wins against the. strikers, and he has absorbed that habit into.his system—"Surrender Never!" The employees' extremist is a younger man, whose association with the class war atmosphere has caused the iron to enter into his soul, and who possesses the sometimes fatal gifts of personal magnetism and mob-oratory. He will not surrender, either. By force of repulsion, these two powerful egos repel.for weeks or months the forces of attraction that otherwise (spurred on by Jack of food and dividends) would drive employees and employers together. At last, however, after a huge economic (and moral) wastage, the influences towards compromise wear down the "no-surrender" forces, and it is then found that the settlement is on the exact terms that/ the less headstrong representatives of.the contending factions had agreed on before the strike took place. The case for the compromise was kas strong before the battle as after it; yet, to arrive back at. the starting point has required untold suffering of strikers and their women and children, huge loss of productive, and— the dramatic pivot of the play—the stai-vation-death of Roberts's wife. The atmosphere is essentially that of the United Kingdom, not of the United States. But the issue has three rather \thau two sides. The extremism of the unionist leader "David Roberts" is rather too much for the London headquarters of unionism, represented by. "Simon Harness"; and the strikers are fighting without union headquarters support, though., the practical "Harness" is waiting till the wastage of clasa-war shall wear down the power of the two extremists and shall present him with the psychological moment for stopping the fight with the very compromise that should have prevented it. The moment comes; settlement is made over the heads of the employer-extremist ("John Anthony") and the employee-extremist ("Roberts"); old "Anthony" totters-off the stage a broken man, and "Roberts" rages his way back to the home of his dead wife-. Personalities roughly relative to the temperamental "Roberts" and the calculating "Harness" might easily be found in the -present strike situation in Britain. There may be an "Anthony" there too. It would be uncandid to say that the performance of "Strife," presented in the Town Hall Concert Chamber last night by the- Repertory' Plays Club, was a success. I At'times there was a real interpretation of Galsworthy, but at other times a mere rej citation, and imperfect at that, with the voice of the prompter in evidence.' Mr. A. Stanley Warwick's "John Anthony" was good in pieces; the hard old battling employer worked up the right atmosphere, but his principal deliverance was too tardy and was in danger of becoming tedious. Mr. Vernon Oswin was quite the approved dry-as-dust board secretary ("Henry Tench") with glimpses of a brain and 'a personality behind his formalism; his plea for peace—a peace that ultimately coincided with his own pre-filrike arrangement with "Harness"—was pathetically put, and he must be regarded as one of the most useful members of the long cast. Mr. Robert Horrobin did well as "Harness, ' but it is an easy part to play. The same, however, cannot be said of "Roberts, and on the whole Mr. J. W. G. Davidson must be regarded as a success; liv spoke with burning conviction, and hi* words went. Miss Norah Burt, as a strik ers daughter, put plenty of venom into her addresses to ■ "Anthony's" daughter, i,md Underwood" (Miss Clarice Leah). Other notable parts were "Mrs. Roberts" (Miss Mona Mann) and "Henry Thomas,' the lay preacher type of striker, well .played by Mr. William Petty. "Strife" will be repeated to-night and to-morrow night when a better acquaintance with the words and the parts, and smoother running generally, should assure improved performances.