MARIE TEMPEST'S FINE ACTING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22808, 18 February 1936, Page 15

MARIE TEMPEST'S FINE ACTING

CHEERED IN NEW COMEDY

After a prosperous trial tour, Mr Kobert Morley's "Short Story" drew an excited audience to its opening London performance. That there should have been'deafening cheers was only natural. At the head of its remarkable cast, Miss Marie Tempest gave fresh cause to acclaim her as the theatrical wonder of our age ((states a London newspaper). Simple mathematics will "prove this better than all the rhetoric in the world. While she still holds the centre of the stage romantically, veteran actresses younger than she . are playing ancient dames. Dame Madge Kendal at this point in her career was regarded as a grand survival of other times, .and Ellen Terry was a 'sweet, faded relic of herself. What does it matter, then, that Mr Morley, like some other young actors turned playwrights, has written a play reminiscent of others? Half of his play is " Hay Fever "' withiut its wit, and the other half "The First Mrs Fraser" without its meaning. Such work deserves no kindly criticism. Mr Morley does not show himself in this play worthy of his astounding good fortune. Out of two notable parts in Miss Tempest's career he has made one shabby one. • -

Here is the retired actress in her counr try cottage that Mr Coward gave us, but she has turned sour. Here is the wife facing a silly young rival that Mr St. John Ervine gave us, but she has lost her serenity and her mental supremacy. Again, Miss Tempest faces Miss Ursula Jeans, who (chanting her words in a discordant sing-song to make believe she is an American) is again the husbandsnatcher. But the wife this time is given no brains —merely snivelling and abuse. Only Miss Temple could hold her own in such circumstances. Even so, Dame Sybil Thorndike might have run away with the play had ■ she not been handicapped by a feather-brained part which prevented her from putting forth her strength. . After an absence of eight years, Mr A. E. Matthews returns to the county where his family won fame in minstrels and harlequinades to display his youthful style as the husband. i Both Mr Rex Harrison and Mr Cyril Raymond play minor characters agreeably, although Miss Una Harrison, as the housekeeper, carries most conviction in the smallest part of all. The play only comes to life in a fight for the telephone, won by Miss Margaret Rutherford, a church fete orgaiser, in a ■white-faced frenzy which is quite startling.