The Theatre
[" GRANNY," BY GRAHAM MOFFAT, ROYALTY THEATRE.--.. "THE FIRST YEAR," BY FRANK CRAVEN, APOLLO.]
IT doesn't matter whether you accept at this season the Bergsonian theory of laughter, or another ; the fact remains that much of the appeal of the funny play consists in mockery at embarrassments, awkwardnesses, perplexities ; and these may appear pathetic to the sensitive. Thus, I have been told, by some of those whom I recommended to go to Yellow Sands at the Haymarket, that the old lady's death, after the second act, interposed a note of pathos, and that it wasn't a bit funny to see a tippler making faces at her vacant chair. Hardness of heart prevented me, I suppose, from worrying.
On the other hand, when bedridden " Granny," in Mr. Graham Moffat's new modern Scottish comedy, tried to crawl out of her bed, from which, with a great monotony of pawkiness, she directs the action of the play, I came near to weeping ; nor did the enforced immobility of the old lady strike me as humorous. But I could see that other people found it so ; just as, in a majority, they always laugh at the skittishness of partially rejuvenated spinsters and bald bachelors making for tardy marriage. You get plenty of that at the Royalty ; with the usual Scotch jokes about thrift, and a remarkable stationary performance of the old lady by Mrs. Graham Moffat.
At the Apollo, you get the domestic embarrassments of two young people—admirably acted by Mr. Ernest Truex and Miss Phyllis Povah. Here I " felt like a good cry " over their uneasy first dinner-party, given to a business man whom the husband wishes to impress. Pathetic also (to me) was the young wife's disappointment with the first year of her toiling married life. But Mr. Ernest Truex carries you away. His would be a perfect piece of comic acting if he would discard certain trivialities of ancient " business," like that which consists in rushing at a half-open door to reproach his wife in the next room, whirling on his heels, then whirling back to the door. This, however, " gets a laugh," as the actors say, and that excuse will easily pass in the " merrie " season of approaching Yule.
The great thing, after all, is the preliminary mood in which you approach funny plays. They cannot be expected to turn Scrooges into Tapleys. Be merrie, then, before you go to them.
RICHARD JENNINGS.
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