PERIOD PLAYS

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 138, 12 June 1936, Page 7

PERIOD PLAYS

REVIVAL IN ENGLAND

It is, in my belief, impossible to recapture period in the theatre, that is, to reproduce it accurately, perfectly, writes Sydney W. Carroll in the "Daily Telegraph." The actors, as a rule, liave had little or no training for such a feat. The producers, however, experienced, naturally enough base their ideas of the past almost entirely on their experiences of the present. They feel too keenly a need of bringing the long ago into line and touch with today. And yet, despite these difficulties, to many so insuperable, period in plays is becoming more and more fashionable. At least five of the biggest West End successes are plays of the costumed past. And in each case the attempt to glimpse and revitalise the dead years and remembered figures ; fend customs : has been almost triumphantly brought off. How can ,we actount for this unusual interest in the ?; grandfather's clock, this antiquarian ..feest; this zeal for the archaic, the dust nof ages past? Does it come from a wish to escape , the horrors, the terrors, the anxieties ; all around us at the moment? Does it 'mean that in most of our hearts there Is an irresistible urge for the beauty, the peace, the serenity, the grace, and loveliness of the long ago? Are we not succumbing to the contrast of ancient colour with today's drab, fiuiet'With noise,' eloquence with incoherence, expression with. dumbness? A'speculation in this direction may not be i without profit to our souls. One of Our most beautiful theatres, His Majesty's.is .now making a gallant ' attempt to restore its prestige and pre- . serve it's traditions with an exquisite . Regency fantasy. The combined brains of Max Beerbohm, Clemence Dane, and Richard Addinsell, the . decorative genius of-. "Motley," the acting brilliance of Ivor Novell© .and his wonderful company provide a feast of pieriod atmosphere the equal of which no London 'theatre has had for years. Its delicacy, its subtlety, its refreshing allure, and accurate reproduction of the time spirit.make "The Happy Hypocrite'* a sparkling gem plucked from the treasury of.the past to adorn the present.; , JANE AUSTEN'S WORLD. At another honoured playhouse teeming with warm and happy memories of period plays, the St. James's, we have Jane 'Austen brought. to stage life with her. "Pride and Brejudice." Were ever-such pleasing and harmonious .eostumes, such wonderful settings', such glorious peeps into the unforgettable century .of ease and good manners given as entertainment before? The lovers of the Napoleonic age may at Daly's Theatre renew" their thrills with the dying Emperor at St. Helena; Becket meets his death in the cathedral for. your benefit at the little Mercury; and "Peer Gynt" may be seen, in its entirety, mark you, at Sadler's Wells. And now to crown the joy of those who love the period piece there has arrived amongst us, at long last, Eugene O'Neill's most adorable study of the days of his youth, his most 1 fragrant comedy, his cleanest and sanest work—"Ah! Wilderness," at the Westminster. This production defies all my beliefs, my standards, and my instincts; Its characters talk the oddest and most fascinating "jargon of Irish and American, past - and present, and I imagine resemble the folk of • New England of, that particular time much Jess than they do a company of Irish playersrfrom Dublin in the year 1936— and yet in their ensemble they afford ,a' satisfaction, spiritual and aesthetic, of the sort that even . the originals of the portraits might perhaps fail'to give us, could we restore them.' ■