THE THEATRE.
" IF," BY LORD DUNSANY, AT THE AMBASSADORS THEATRE.
PERHAPS I was in a heavy mood, but anyhow I experienced the sensation of constantly falling through If. John Beal of The Acacias is presented one Sunday evening—as he sits over the fire with his wife—with a magic crystal by an Oriental to whom he has rendered a service. The crystal has the power of taking its owner back through time; with its aid he may retrace any given step and may live the ten years which succeed the revised Incident as they would have been moulded by that reconsidered step. As in all proper fairy tales, this ten years will seem only the passing of a few hours to the companions of him who is translated. To them he will return at the end of the appointed time, when all will be as before. John Beal, in his drawing-room with the oleographs, the bead curtains, and the aspidistra, is, however, singularly happy. Especially does he desire that his charming little Cockney wife shall remain unaltered. But a certain incident of a missed train has always rankled, and he decides that he will catch that train of ten years ago. He does, and thus becomes involved with a young lady from, say, Hornsey Rise whose money has been invested in an enterprise of Persian brigands. He vows to help her to recover her divi- dends, and is next discovered in a very amusing scene in a tent in the East furthering the interests of the young lady, and incidentally reforming the religious customs of the Bishareens. At last he becomes Shereef of the country, with the young lady as his favourite. She is a natural " vamp " and intriguer, and, with the aid of her Bishareen lover, conspires his death. He escapes with his life, however, and returns to England, and when the ten years are up is drawn he knows not how to get back to The Acacias. The crystal breaks, and John Beal comes to himself with nobody any the wiser for the adventure.
But, alas ! the tale has nothing of the didacticism of the true fairy tale and nothing of the intellectual or psychological subtlety of the modern essay in Erewhonism. We hope to see John Beal modified or unchanging under different circumstances, but the picture flickers and changes till we are not sure that it is the same man at all. Nor is there, as I have complained, a moral, nor any extreme beauty of diction.
Mr. Ainley and Miss Marda Vanne act very well, as does Miss Gladys Cooper. Mr. Lovat Fraser, who designed the dresses and decoration, has done his work well. The room at The Acacias is very cleverly observed with its pale pink wall- paper and its red Utrecht velvet " suite." Some of the Persian dresses are very beautiful, notably those of the three musicians, and the Cloth of Gold overcoats which the company at the feast put on to mark the occasion festive. In fact, the whole presentation of the play is excellent ; the incidental music is admirable, and all the details are worked out with Mr. Nigel Play- fair's customary care and thoroughness. Here, indeed, I have only one criticism to make. I should have liked far more noise and crashing of cymbals and shouts " off " at the dramatic moment of the betrayal at the Feast.
If I have conveyed the idea that the play is something of a failure, a play to avoid, let me hasten to correct that impression. Even the most critical will much enjoy it, and to many people it may seem wholly delightful. It is decidedly a play to see. So far, apparently, the whole public is of my opinion, for it is difficult to get seats either for the evening performances
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