DELIGHTFUL COMEDY

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 57, 5 September 1934, Page 5

DELIGHTFUL COMEDY

"THIS WOMAN BUSINESS"

Confident in the popularity of its latest play, "This Woman iiusine.ss," the Wellington Repertory Theatre opened at the Concert Chamber last night a season of live nights. Cuing by this first performmice of the play, such confidence was fully warranted, for although the play is "1()5 per cent, talking" the interest of tlie audience wa.s caught in the opening of the first act and held until the full of tile curtain some throe hours later. Nobody appeared to be bored, and everybody seemed to be amused. The play is by Bonn Levy and quite modern in origin, treatment, and style, but its subject is very ol<l: prehistoric, no duiibt: the inscrutability of woman —to men. In some respects the play is essentially didactic, but the lessons it appeared to try In teach were not learned by the various male characters in "'This Woman Business" any more than they ale likely lo be learned by men engaged in tlie unending tragicomedy of life. Still, Mi-, Levy, through his characters, is a sage, witty, and entertaining pedagogue. By way of illustration he shows how four men accepted the invitation of a fifth to go down to his little place in Cornwall, there to enjoy a sort of mysogyiiic tetrcat. All arc agreed upon the general inferiority of women, and all express their views from their individual angles. The men consist of (1) a successful business man, married, with seven marriageable daughters, and of the name of Brown; (2) the host, a confirmed and stoutly-entrenched- bachelor, named Hodges; (3) Bringham, Sir Charles, an ex-Judgo with very long Divorce Court experience, also a bachelor; (4) Crofts, bachelor soldier, with North-west Frontier and African experience; and (5) Honey, a poet, as yet untrapped by any female fowler. Each of these in quite long speeches delivers himself of his views on women- and has not much lo say to their credit. The first act becomes a symposium. Incidentally it reveals Bonn Levy as not only a very c.lever artist in dialogue, but an adroit skater over ice which is never thin.

Jnto this Eve-less Eden bounds a young and pretty woman. She is a confessed thief, ' a palpable liar, and well able to take care of herself in a physical sense by the way she flings a butler to the floor. N!o doubt the audience anticipated that this woman's unmannerly entrance would upset the myeogynistic apple-cart, and bolt off with it, horse, apples, and all. She did; ami yet, when the curtain fell, the audience "was left speculating whether or no this managing female intruder achieved a conquest. The play was delightfully acted, and it is no exaggeration to suggest that in that respect its whole cast attained a high professional standard. Almost every part fitted like well-cut' and capably-worn clothes. That of the host. Hodges, was taken by Mr. Vivian G. Rhind, a convincing and polished player, always audible and possessing a nice sense of the value of the pause. The part of the. Judge was brilliantly taken by Mr. S. K. Crawford, with deliberate, clear enunciation and very like a Judge could be off the Bench or on it. An exceedingly clever study of a loquacious and bright young cynic was that of the poet Honey, played by Mr. G. 11. A. Swan. Crofts, the crusty bachelor who had b«en jilted thirty years before and had sought solace in service abroad for King and country, was capitally played by Mr. .7. B. Yaldwyn. The newly-rich, much-married, and tenderhearted Brown was represented by Mr. F. Hayes-Towns, one of the (Repertory Theatre's comedy, stalwarts—a thoroughly sound and resourceful actor in parts that suit him. The woman in the piece was cleverly acted by. Miss Zita Chapman, who appeared to have a penetrating insight into the character and the way (he playwright intended it. should be played. The domestic parts of a maid and a butler were admirably handled by Miss Annette Strickland anil Mr. E. K. Le Grove respectively.

The production whs the work of Mr. Leo dv Chateau, and it was faultless in every particular, look where one would for the omissions or gaueheries that seem inevitable in amateur performances. The stage setting described as a "living-room" was just what one would look for in the way of comfort and decoration of a bachelor's quarters.

"This Woman Business will be pcrtormed every evening this week, it should on no account be missed.