AN AMUSING COMEDY

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 105, 30 October 1935, Page 6

AN AMUSING COMEDY

"THE LATE CHRISTOPHER

BEAN"

All in search of amusing entertainment should see the comedy, "The Late Christopher Bean." It was, presented by the Repertory Theatre at the Concert Chamber last night, and the season .will run until Saturday night. The play is an adaptation from the French, and the subject is cupidity exposed and defeated. It may have been difficult for some present last eyening to think that, beyond appropriation of the idea, the play was Gallic in origin, so thoroughly English was its. atmosphere. The title of the original play was "Prenez Garde ala Peinture," but even that affords but little clue to the character of "The Late Christopher Bean." No doubt the French version developed the same theme, exploited the same human characteristics. Are there not the novels of Balzac and has not Moliere held the mirror up to French human nature? 'When the play began last night the audience was admitted into the family of Dr. Haggett, a general practitioner iii an English village, with a good but far from lucrative practice, in short, as" he complains, the people don't pay their doctor's bills; if they did his liresome wife and his two marriageable daughters could have things proper to their station and take a holiday in the Isle of Man. But this year of the play there can be no holiday at all. There it is, and they must make the best of it. \ But that is not all, there is the departure of Gwennie, the devoted and competent Welsh maid who has been with the family for fifteen years, and is well disposed towards the doctor. Also, the house is upset, for the painters are in. Quite unexpectedly a fortune—well, at least, a few thousands of pounds—is dangled tantalisingly before the doctor and his family, and this is how it is: a young and very poor artist named Christopher Bean had been treated and helped by Dr. Haggett. He had suffered from tuberculosis,' and it had killed him, but that was ten years before the play. Some letters written by Bean had been published in a London, journal, and in them he had referred to a number of his paintings left with Dr. Haggett. By one of those sometimes inexplicable turns in the art market the public which would not give one guinea for a painting by poor Bean in his lifetime were prepared to pay hundreds, even thousands, for examples of his work now that he has been dead-ten years. The example of prices realised for the works of Jean Francois Millet will be recalled—and there are others. Now, the letters of Christopher Bean paving been published, his work having already made a stir among the collectors, critics, and dealers, the doctor is called upon by a picture faker, a dealer,,and an art critic., The first gives him ari idea that he never had before of the monetary value of Bean's pictures; the second makes buying them a matter of business and tries to get them for very much under their market value; and the critic, who does not want to' buy, astonishes the doctor by the high values he puts upon them. Then it is that the greed and cunning of the doctor and his wife .and their elder daughter are disclosed, and so the play proceeds. It is a fascinating if ugly study of greed and hypocrisy. Gwennie'. has a part in the: too, because she had befriended Bean, and he painted her portrait, but she was generally, actuated in alii she did by what '.she called "the TWill of God," and part with that picture she would not.. The play ends with a surprising announcement which 'it would not be kind.to those who will see it to disclose. . '. The comedy gives a skilful vand fair and accurate picture of life, and is well within the .'bounds of probability. For instance, how many in the audience could withhold sympathy from the doctor's wife Wvhen she exclaimed, "It's tbis.-endless 'having just enough and not, • a scrap left over , for rv" The sentence was not completed, .but its significance could not be missed;,-. Then there was the fact (of which one does not hear very much) of Corots and Cezannes in private collections that were pamtecjl years after those painters were dead. ,The disclosures oi bogus Millets are too recent to forget. As tor the Jewish picture dealer "who tried to get for £200 pictures he knew to be worth thousands, after all he was but a _ man of business, and 1 more estimable than the Haggetts, who tried to diddle Gwennie out of her rights. _ The_ casting of "The Late Christopher Bean" by the, Repertory' Theatre must' have presented some difficulty to those responsible for it. iTo-Mr. F. G. Hayes Towns -was allotted the part of Dr Haggett, but he has-been seen in parts that .fitted him better than that Of a country general practitioner. He played it with skill and sincerity, was always vital, alert, and,.acted with conviction. Miss Corahe Smythson as Gwennie, the Welsh maid, ; was admirable, playing the part with-intelligence and feeling. It was a big part, and she fully iustified her selection for it. Mrs.-G. C Boyes,- as the: doctor's wife, gave a clever portrayal of the character/and Miss Lorna'Black, as Ada, her elder daughter : as inoney-loving as herself, played the part, with skill and understanding. Excellent work was put into the character of the picture faker, Tallant, by.Mr; Martin Liddle. As'the Jewish picture dealer, Rosen, Mr E E Le Grove was exceedingly good, but he could never make up his mind when to speak English with a Yiddish accent and when to speak without it, as even stage Jews sometimes do. A clever reading of the, part of the art critic Davenport, was given by Mr. F H Dawn. Miss Belinda Bogle and"Mr Thomas Campbell were to be congratulated on their .successful presentation of a_ couple of unsophisticated lovers. There was but one scene, the doctor's !r^' r°. OIV and consultation-room combined—the painters were in at the time—and it was a masterpiece of bricks made With very little straw, j ££ ? lay was Produced by Mr. Leo dv Chateau, who is;to be congratulated °V *e.wa/ the company as a whole entered into its spirit. There were no hitches, and not a whisper heard from pl^T^f.?- "?£ c L?te ChristophS Bean should not be missed by anyone m search of wholesome humour, and witty and amusing dialogue.