IRISH HOME LIFE

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 7, 8 July 1940, Page 9

IRISH HOME LIFE

REPERTORY THEATRE

COMEDY

"The soul of comedy is truth, but the spice of comedy is wit," said Marie Tempest. The latest production of the Repertory Theatre, "Spring Meeting," fits this frame. The play was given at the Concert Chamber on Saturday. It is a collaboration by M. J. Farrell and John Perry. Its truth lay in the wholly credible persons in the play and the way they would behave and did behave in certain circumstances; its wit in;the dialogue and, it. may be added, its rich humour of that unconscious kind that makes the Irish people so lovable. • The audience here saw life and incident not exaggerated for stage purposes but wittily and skilfully epitomised. Sir Richard, according to his veracious sister Bijou, who. lives with him, "spends plenty of money on horses that never win a race," but he is close, or pretends to be, when called upon to spend it on his two marriageable girls, or on domestic comforts, even necessaries. The first act shows how the play will end and who will marry whom. The success of "Spring Meeting" as a play rests entirely on those taking parts in it, even small parts. So much. was obvious on Saturday. The prin-; cipal roles were admirably played, and that to the life. Sir Richard Furze was allotted to Vivian G. Rhind, who made the character live, emptied it of everything suggestive of the thea- | tre, represented an Irishman one has, or might have,, known. It was a part calling for more than familiarity with | the lines for, whatever else Sir Richard was, he was a gentleman, and Mr. Rhind had that fact well in mind. As for Bijou, Miss A. Louise Hall seemed to have been borri for the part, one of; those persons who complain "nobody ever tells me anything"—and no one ever does. Pathetic people in some ways, having had their cake and eaten it too. But the part was not made poignant by Miss Hall —she saw and evidently relished the humour of it, and, it seems safe to say, that handling of the part should have pleased the' writers of the play. The girls, Joan and Baby, played by Miss Nancy Potter and Mrs. G. Swan respectively, suggested the equine members of the establishment, Baby yet to be put through her paces, Joan having had some experience of crowds and racecourses. Miss Potter played her part with conviction, and m the scene in which she defied and defeated her father, with a touch of genius in its restraint. Baby was cleverly represented as a spoiled, guileless, and embarrassingly candid child, an expert in letting cats out of bags. The part of James, the butler, intimate friend of the family rather than retainer, was allotted to Mr. James Crawford, who skilfully avoided the shallows of farce, especially in one part of the play when he came on in a nightshirt; moreover, he made the character of James really Irish in its Blarney. Mr. Eric Crawford, as a handy man about the place, made a small part brilliant: Mr. John Roberts, as Michael Byrne, handled his part with sincerity. TBe i Fox-Colliers, mother and son, were I skilfully represented by Mrs. I. G., ! Young and Mr. Richard Andrew. They j adequately portrayed the sort of people ' appearing much in the pictorial news iof social doings at Cannes or Deauville in the season. Much of the success of the comedy was due to them. The play was carefully produced,by Mr. G. Swan and the cast repaid hint for his trouble by its excellent performance. ' The audience expressed its approval in cheers for the producer •aswell as in hearty laughter. "Spri^ Meeting" will be repeated this Bxid following evenings.