STAGE AND SCREEN
The Theatre
"Close Quarters." By W. 0. Somin. Adapted by Gilbert Lennox. At the Haymarket THIS play has only two characters. These two are Gustav and Liesa Bergmann, a cheerful and irresponsible Communist agitator and his devoted misguided wife. Gustav has just been promoted to an important and relatively remunerative post in his party organization, and has delivered an inflam- matory speech attacking their most stubborn enenay, the Minister of the Interior', which haS been rapturously received. He is elated and anxious to celebrate these 'events. They start drinking beer and dancing to' the wireless, when suddenly the-music is interrupted and it is announced that the Minister of the Interior has been miirdered. Gustav recognizes that his speech, coupled with his traditional hatred of the dead man, is likely to direct suspicion upon him, He confesses that this evening, to make matters worse, instead of coming hcime by his usual way, he returned for a change through the wood in which the Minister's house is situated. Later it is announced that the weapOn used was a revolver of the same type as the one which he generally carries ; later still, it' is announced that the police have found a glove which they consider an important clue, and, as it happens, he has iost a glove Marked with his initials:- These are the only circumstances which might incriminate • him; but his wife is so ill at ease and so apprehensive that with each hour he becomes more expeetant of arrest and the less confident of being able to prove his innocence. He is on the point of collapse when his wife confesses to him that she is herself the Minister's murderer. She reveals to him that with the idea (it seems an odd one, but apparently it worked) of aiding his career she became the mistress of the dead. man, who then under the threat of exposing her to her Husband compelled her to work for hiM as a spy. His own advancement and the hitherto inexplicable detectiOn of every move made in secret by his party are in fact both the results of his 'wife's disloyalty. The weapon she. used was her husband's pistol, and when she went out to commit the Murder she was wearing the pair of gloves from which one is now missing. Arrest now seems inevitable ; in , any ease his own happiness has been wrecked by his wife's confession, so Gustav puts an end to the situation with a couple of pistol shots. A few minutes later it is announced on the wireless that the police are satisfied that the glove which they foiind has nothing to do with the crime. • • • It would be ungenerous and pointless to complain that Close Quarters is not a work of art of the highest order, because its authors have accomplished what they set out to do with such skill that they can clearly have no illusions about the level at which the play makes. its appeal (the trivial gesture with which it ends demonstrates clearly enough that a serious• work of art is not intended, but its effect as a psychological thriller is not diminished. by it, as the play has really ended• and made its effect with the deaths . of Liesa and Gustav). Perhaps. the term psychological thriller' needs some quali-. fication : the audience, if it is at all intelligent, becomes aware of Liesa's secret two acts before her husband does, and, conse-. quently can transfer its attention from this component of the plot to the emotional suspense set up by the situation between the two characters. But though both these charac- ters have been drawn with considerable skill, the attention of the audience is still primarily absorbed by speculation on the outcome of the events in which . they. are involved. The subject of the play, in fact, is not human nature, but the deVelopment of a single highly artificial situation.,.
, These reservations' must be • made of the play ; the acting can be praised without any qualification. Both "Miss Flora Robson and Mr. Oscar Homolka give performances of an astounding virtuosity. Mr: Homolka, who is an Austrian, has mastered a long and exceptionally difficult part with a truly miraculous skill. I have never seen anything more impressive than his astonishing command of tone and 'pitch, of expression, of facial and digital gesture-1-in 'fact' of every attribute of an unquestionably great actor. Miss 'Robson's acting is little less satisfying, and Miss Irene Hentschcfs production could hot be bettered for its control of ,movement and atmosphere. , The play itself may not be of quite the highest quality, but because of its magnificent Performance no one who elaims an interest in the contemporary theatre
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