SIR NIGEL PLAYFAIR.

Otago Witness, Issue 3954, 24 December 1929, Page 64

SIR NIGEL PLAYFAIR.

SUCCESS OF “ BEAU AUSTIN.” (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, November 7. “Beau Austin” is running well at the Lyric. Hammersmith, and its existence may be a little longer than Sir Nigel Playfair originally intended. Although put on only for a limited period, no expense has been spared to make it a perfect production. It came from Glasgow and Edinburgh with very high commendations from northern critics, and with the views expressed in the north people of the south are in hearty accord. As one writer remarks: “It rings all through with the sheer beauty of Stevenson.” The cast is excellent, consisting as it does of Bertram Wallis (George Frederick Austin), John Fenwick (Ballard Berkeley), Roland Culver (Anthony Musgrave),

Nigel Playfair (Menteith); George Skillan (the Duke of York). Marie Ney (Dorothy Musgrave), Miss Evelina Foster (Winifred Evans), and Barbara Ridley (Yvonne Rorie). The elegancies of life at “The Wells” are delightfully recalled, telling an old story of love, betrayal, and heroics adorned with many jewelled Stevensonian phrases, which flow easily and well from the lips of the experienced actors. Bertram Wallis, still of commanding stature and fine figure, is the rake to the life; Beau is a professional seducer who has “ diced, danced, vanquished in a drawing room, fought for a word.” Marie Ney is a joy to see and a treat to hear in the pathetic part of Miss Musgrave. Sir Nigel allocates to himself the small, but still important, part of the Beau’s valetfriend. and he acts with superb dignity. “ The acting was fully up to the very high standard of the play. Mr Bertram Wallis’s Beau Austin was a study of a delightful and very human man. The picture he drew was light, airy, yet never unpleasantly cynical. His was a finenatured, most un-Hogarthian rake. Miss Marie Ney as Dorothy Musgrave acted with great emotional intensity, but her outbursts were always beautifully controlled.”