1 MAY 1926, Page 12

* * * * The New Chenil Galleries were full

of literary and artistic lions on Tuesday night to hear Miss Edith Sitwell's entertainment, which she called Facade. It consisted in a recitation of her poems off stage, through a megaphone, accompanied by incidental music. Mr. Arnold Bennett looked much impressed by the performance and so did Mr. Augustus John, but if a vote had been taken of all the literary people present—distinguished and extinguished (by the megaphone)—I think the general opinion would have been that an hour of recitation with no reciter to look at was too long. " Said the Bishop, Eating his ketchup, There still remains Eternity," as one of Miss Sitwell's characters says. But the performance was undeniably clever. The cat's in his cradle, all's right with the world " seemed very good, and the audience rocked with laughter. It doesn't look so brilliant in print, but Miss Sitwell's is a living art, meant to be expressed in speech. She is a pioneer, one of a gay company of adventurers.

TANTUM.