Contemporary Arts
THEATRE
Misery Me By Dennis Cannan. (Duchess.) SHORTLY before the curtain rose on Misery Me we were told that this was to be the penultimate performance: shortly after it fell we heard that a stay of execution had been granted. Should this week's reprieve be ex- tended, see it, if you can.
Not that Denis Cannan quite succeeds in what he has set out to do. The play's contagion spread unevenly through the audience—as had happened a month ago at the same theatre in the early performances of A Kind of Folly. Those of us who had not laughed so long and loud as our neighbours were left groping de- fensively for.excuses to justify ourselves. cently, it is becoming harder to maintain that these failures of communication are the fault of playwrights rather than of audiences. For what justification have we in our clamour for more new and 'different' plays if this is what happens to pieces as stimulating as Misery Me!?
BRIAN INGLIS
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