• L 'Enfant Prodigue. By Michel Carr& with music by
Andre Wormser. (Arts.) THANKS the general level of-dramatic prose in the West End, this celebrated little play without words comes as a welcome relief as much as a pleasant curiosity. Not to hear the humdrum drone of such shapeless dialogue as might have been recorded in tube or tea- shop or palm-court is as soothing as the moment when a headache lifts, and even for that negative pleasure alone it would be worth recommending the sad and silent affair of Pierrot the love-consumed and Phrynette the heartless'. Carte's mime play is a most delicate construction, to be handled with care if thepathos is not to be shaken off in flakes as pale as Pierrot's chalky face, and for, the most part the Arts handles it with the gentle firmness that is needed. The effect is made, the small elegiac poetry of adolescent romanticism communicated. But in the face of some difficulties. Archie Harradine (who also produces) and Elaine Wodson play Pierrot's Parents, and without saying a word leave nothing unsaid. Sara Luzita as Phrynette gives a prettily convincing demonstration of how a girl with her wits about her can switch from romantic to worldly comedy when it suits her, and Harold Turner as the Baron, whose tight-corseted appearance gives her the cue for change of role, is magnificently funny. But Yoma Sasburgh's Pierrot, pale though Pierrot must be, is still a shade too pale for these robust surround- ings, and this is a pallor which tends to spread itself, at awkward moments, over the mood of-the production. It survives, though.
LAIN HAMILTON.
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