The Gay Dog. By Joseph Colton. (Piccadilly.) Tins is described
as a " farcical comedy," but to my dismay I was unable to recognise the presence of farce in any strength. It is, in fact, a genial kitchen comedy in the Northern manner, played rather tightly and in an oddly low key by a company whose quality in some respects is not unflattering to the text. Mr. Wilfred Pickles as Jim Gay is the hero of the piece, a blunt-tongued miner whose- care is all for his greyhound and the profits she may win. I think it was unfortunate that he has to soft-pedal the accent. It is all very well to extend scenes with little lectures, in faintly pussyfoot style, about the sterling virtues of the miner and his going up in the world, &c., but it is another thing to fillet the social comedy in the process. The play as it stands,. instruction and all, would have been more comic for more robust playing. Jim Gay owns a wife and daughter as well as a greyhound bitch, and it looks as though he is to have the vicar's boy, no less, as son-in-law. This impending connection with the Anglican corrun 'on is handy, for the vicar himself has a dog entered for the great rate-at which Jim has hopes to clean up with his own Raving Beauty. A little " sifting " discloses the immense superiority of the vicarage kennel, and a change of tactics permits a genial ending for all con- cerned, including three of Jim's relatives who have lost their shirts by putting them greedily on the wrong dog. Mr. Pickles is supported by an excellent team, including Miss Megs Jenkins, Mr. David King-Wood, Miss Nuna Davey, Mr. Douglas Ives and Mr. Anthony Oliver. I feel that many opportunities for comic effects are lost through the avoidance of honest vulgarity and also through the leisurely pace, but it must be reported that a word or two from Mr. Pickles and the house is loud with laughter. So it is certainly a piece for enthusiasts, of whom there is no scarcity.
IAIN HAMILTON.
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