PLAYS FOR MALVERN.

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 142, 17 June 1937, Page 21

PLAYS FOR MALVERN.

If George Bernard Shaw has "Geneva" ready in time, it will be the chief event •of. the Malvern Festival, opening this year on July 26 and ending on August 21. He began writing this play on his last world tour, but it is not yet finished and another of his works may yet have to be substituted. In any case, writes George W. Bishop, the well-known London critic, there will be a revival of "The Apple Cart," a good choice for Coronation Year. This play opened the Festival nine years ago. Sir Barry Jackson will present two new plays by modern authors as well as Sheridan's "School for Scandal" and Fielding's "Tom Thumb," and also keep up the Malvern tradition with an evening of very early dramatic works. One of these will be "Susannah," which was discovered by Professor Ivor Evans during some literary researches last year The unknown dramatist deals with the Apocryphal story of Susannah with insight and humour. The prophet Daniel intervenes to save Susannah, from the Elders' wicked plot.

lor the fourth time in six years Joan Crawford and Robert Montgomery are teamed in the type of intriguing comedy that has placed both m the top ranks of stardom. This time they are reunited in the Metro-Gold-wyn-Mayer production of Frederic Lonsdale's stage play, "The Last of Mrs Cheyney' T Miss Crawford appears as the delightful adventuress Fay Cheyney, and Montgomery as the persistent, titled wooer, Lord Arthur Dilling. William Powell plays the role of the distinguished butler. "The Last of Mrs. c Jieyney" was directed by Richard Boleslawski, with one of the year's strongest comedy supporting. casts. There are lavish settings by Cedric uibbons with an English background. Six years ago Miss Crawford and Montgomery first were seen together in Our Blushing Brides." Their subsequent co-starring successes were "No More Ladjes" and "Forsaking .. All Others." "The Last of Mrs. Cheyney relates the intriguing adventures of a shop girl who "crashes" London society and becomes the toast of the town until she is discovered to be an accomplice to a thief.