1 DECEMBER 1973, Page 23

Will

Waspe Waspe is constantly amazed by — not to say breathless with admiration for — the aplomb of actors in concealing, while they are acting with each other, the traumas that afflict them as people while they are not. The new revival of Coward's Design for Living (in London at the Phoenix) is not, rumour insists, a particularly ' happy ' production: undercurrents of animosity run through the backstage dressingrooms, and an especially ruffled relationship is that between the leading lady, Vanessa Redgrave, and one of her leading men, John Stride. Even at last week's opening night, Waspe learns, there was much fierce bickering between the acts. But was any of this evident in the performances? It was not_ This, perhaps, is the core of what acting is about.

Losers—and a winner

The West End's other theatrical opening last week was also not a joyous occasion, though for different reasons. All concerned had known all along that Comes was a dud, but had resolved not to believe it until they actually got the thing in front of an audience. The glum reactions of the firstnight audience at the Queen's, though packed with chums of the cast and the management, confirmed the bad news. A sad business, especially for the leading players, Roy Dotrice and Rachel Kempson. Especially, too, for Sir Michael Redgrave (Miss Kempson's spouse). It was Redgrave, I hear, who, while in America with Dotrice earlier this year, suggested. that Rachel would be an excellent choice of co-star in the play — which Dotrice had already contracted to do. Poor Sir Michael thought he had done his lady a favour when impresario Bernard Delfont fell in with the idea. Alas, the play closed on Saturday after six public performances which, by general consent, were six too many.

The lucky lady — or the shrewd one — was Dame Peggy Ashcroft, to whom the Rachel Kempson part was originally offered and who briskly declined it.

Opportunity knocks

They could scarcely believe their luck at Yorkshire Television when the news came out that Princess Anne and Captain Phillips would begin the first official engagements of their wedded life in Ecuador. Did they not have a Whicker's World in the can dealing with this very land, and at this time of year, too? Indeed, they did — and Yorkshire will slap it on the screen on December 4, the day of the royal visit, under the title, A Right Royal Fiesta.