25 MAY 1956, Page 26

THE. THEATRE OF ANGNA ENTERS. (Arts.) --- 6 : ALBERTINE BY MOONLIGHT. By

D. Bellini. (Westminster.) IT would be hard to find two such contrast shows in any theatre centre as the entertagis. ments listed above. Subtlety against obvies1 ness; good craftsmanship against striderip endeavour; taste against—let us saY-4

unhappy choice of material. se5.

Miss Enters gives a series of mime skete" selective pictures of a feminine world; that world in which Woman's occupation 'd to be enthralled by, absorbed in, and antai.t, at, the stupidity, the glory and the paralYstli; selfishness of Man. In the best items, ab°Dre two-thirds of the material, every ges`, of counts, every muscle has value; the a smile, the lift of a lip, the swing of a siclot are exactly weighted to expound somethingo the essential, eternal She. 'Pique-nique; rin d'amour' and 'Figures in Moonlight 70. worth going far to see; it is all highly edit% tional for the male members of the audient women probably hate every second of Mr. Bellini's play, 'a fantastic comedY.;;,1 in provincial France around 1900, is an 1tirr5r mingling of several dramatic and Itte,.1.343 notions and characters. There are clear any of Anouilh, P. G. Wodchouse and FeYec's in this tale of a lecherous marquise',01 postillion with uppish ideas, a medite'i. ghost, and a she-orphan neck-deep in whillitsiy The dialogue too (note: period 1900) is Pre:00 well neck-deep in such verbal niceties as 51e of a tizzy,' it's an open-and-shut case,' ta.ne his guts for garters.' . . . Shades of Rael and Molierc—and of Anouilh and FeYdea,5,5

Helen Christie as the marquise and

Lia

Jones as the postillion make a few d

bricks out of this uncongenial clay. 30$