The Theatre
"Make Up Your Mind." A Comedy by Leopold Marchand. Adapted by Xenia Lowinsky. At the Criterion Theatre.
To throw a firework into a circle of people and watch whether they or the firework jump the highest is, in certain circum- stances, a legitimate and entertaining gesture. The atrophied respectability of the Page family certainly demanded such a protest. " The florid father, whose only passion is pursuing prawns, his acquiescent and non-committally virtuous wife, and his conventionally rebellious offspring nearly reach the ceiling when, like a gusty March day, Balthazar McConochie, an eccen- tric and explosive millionaire, bursts upon the scene. He immediately takes command, and arranges the drawing room furniture, the children's futures, the father's investments, and his wife's affaires de mem. with the same whirlwind authority. Roger, the boy, exchanges the yawns of bored adolescence for the buoyant heartiness of an embryo cow-puncher, the stage- struck Ruth feels the boards already beneath her feet, Albert. Page imagines himself on the spot a millionaire, and his wife proceeds to make a fool of herself with Sebastien Beynes, callow dramatist. Balthazar's charm is irresistible.
However, the sunlight is suddenly clouded. The appalling suggestion is made that the genius is in reality a mental case.
Confidence is replaced by confusion. Albert Page reasserts himself and boots his turbulent family back to the kennel of their former tedium. The eventual sequel, in the interests of mystery, we shall not divulge. This play is in reality a triumph for the producer. Formless farce (even though there is a certain shrewdness in its structural irregularity) is a difficult barque to steer between the rocks of fatuity. Mr. Gullan has, however, exactly the right touch on the rudder : the right amount of wind is in the sails ; and an extremely effective pace is achieved. The dialogue, without being over-subtle, is natural and amusing, and provides ample opportunity for the players to extract from it the fullest measure of force and farce.
As the swashbuckling financier, Mr. Baliol Holloway gave an admirable performance. Occasionally—in some of the quick dialogue passages, for instance—the inflexions of blank verse were allowed to creep in : and at times we began to fear that the whole farcical family would be blustered out of exist- ence. However, their lives are saved by the surprise that M. Marchand has in store for us.
Mr. Hubert Harben gives an impressive display of futile paternity and is well supported by Miss Mercia Swinburne as his wife. But apart from Mr. Holloway, the real honours of the evening go to Mr. Reginald Gardiner, who plays the super- cilious and philandering playwright with unqualified perfec-
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