Chic with Everything Murray Kempton, on a visit from New
York, has been looking at the Wellingborough Festival, and these are his first impressions: 'Center 42's opening ceremonies were marvellously Anglican. Only Gussie Finkrtottle was lacking. Arnold Wesker in a suede jacket. Mr. Howard Deighton, chairman of the Wellingb:nough Urban District Council, and his lady in the chains of Lord and Lady Mayoress. A crowd as small as Wesker's spirit is large. "A world premiere - that's some- thing for Wellingborough," said Mayor Deigh- ton. Introduces George Allen, chairman of the Wellingborough TUC. "We may be a small town but we're not small-minded," says George Allen. Mayor Deighton thanked him for his colourful speech. Miss Billie Whitelaw told the audience how much she needed the workers, that she draws her vitality from them. (The style of the actress dedicated is always Shelley Winters.) Mayor Deighton thanked her for her artistic speech. Flowers for Miss Whitelaw and the Lady Mayoress. Not red roses in either case. The British revolution may be only the fact that Arnold Wesker, a child of the working class, is permitted in the Sixties to perform the experi- ments open only to Oxford Firsts in the Thirties. Still, how far upstream he needs to swim. Tues- day, the premiere of his Nottingham Captain, a singspiel about the Luddite revolt of 1817. The last words of one revolutionary martyr: "God bless the king of this nation." The language of alienation in that Britain was a luxury of Whig gentlemen? Mr. Wesker is a genuine revolu- tionary, but charming in his innocence. A sort of Norman Mailer with manners. Sceptics think him, of course, obsolete. But, by sheer vitality,
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