"THE MAN WHO ATE THE POPO. , MACK." SPECIAL MATINEE AT
SAVOY THEATRE, JUNE 12TH, 1923, MOST of the large audience which heard Mr. W. J. Turner's The Man Who Ate the Popomack would support me when I say that the success of this play, when seen on the stage, provides a very strong argument for trial performances. We who are interested in the theatre feel that by some means or other the number of such trial performances should be increased. Perhaps by the help of some society, or perhaps with the co-operation of managers and casts of plays which have settled down for long runs, it could be made certain that any play by an established writer in which there is a new device should be given the trial of a single public performance.
I should myself have said that Mr. Turner's play, powerful as it was to read, would not have been a success on the stage. A well-known, enterprising and experienced manager of my acquaintance expressed the same opinion : that is, we were both convinced that the play would not hold us--no question of playing down to an uninterested audience was involved. When it was performed it was immediately apparent that we were wrong. Mr. Turner's play certainly has faults, but in spite of them all it is invariably interesting and often moving. A great deal of the dialogue is witty and amusing, and the play's general effect upon the audience is excellent.
Mr. Denham, the producer, handled a difficult task most capably. Technically, the play reached an extraordinary standard considering that only a single performance was contemplated. Mr. Herbert Marshall, Miss Isobel Jeans, and Mr. Leo Carroll stood out specially in a very good cast.
This play was preceded by Mr. Geoffrey Whitworth's Father Noah, an imaginative, rather attractive, but strangely indecisive one-act piece. TARN.
(The usual "Recreations of London" will be found on p.1053.)
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