CONTEMPORARY ARTS
THE THEATRE
"The Beaux' Stratagem." By George Farquhar. (Phoenix.)
FARQUHAR brings up the rear of Restoration comedy. He appears to br marching in step with the glittering and equivocal echelons that have preceded him, his arms and equipment look, like theirs, as if he belonged to the lightest of infantry, and we expect to receive from him the same sort of salute that the others gave us— a gesture • elegant, detached and essentially louche. But as he passes us we note the difference in his bearing. Though less sophisticated than the gallants in the van, he gives the impression —oddly, for he died when he was twenty-nine--of being more grown-up. Perhaps the explanation is that he is a genuinely good-humoured fellow and sees no reason to be ashamed of the fact. A touch of mellowness after so much malice makes a nice change, and we find the young Irishman difficult to resist. He is seen to the very best advantage in Mr. John Clementes production of The Beaux' Stratagem. The complexities of the sub-plot have been dispensed with, and the comedy, finely dressed by Miss Elizabeth Happenden' is presented with racy and effective gusto. The chief ornament is Miss Kay Hammond as Mrs. Sullen. Endowed by nature with an essentially witty face and an irredeemably eccentric voice, Miss Hammond has at least two of the prerequisites of a great comedienne ; and of these and of her other talents she makes such beguiling use that a tendency—almost an occupational disease among audiences at Restoration comedies—to mutter, "Oh, but you should have seen Edith Evans in the part" is never in danger of manifesting itself. Mr. Clements, an actor better equipped than perhaps any of his contemporaries to combine comedy with romance, is admirable as Archer, and Mr. Robert Eddison gives Aimwell everything—except perhaps an edge of insolence—that this impostor should have. Miss Gwen Cherrell and Miss Iris Russell do very well in minor parts and Mr. Lloyd Pearson exhibits with great skill the seedy pretensions of a highwayman whose character shows Farquhar's brushwork at its best. Altogether a very enjoyable evening.
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