STAGE AND SCREEN The Theatre
"Bitter Harvest." By Catherine Turney. At the Arts Theatre THE Censor is nearly always unfortunate in his choice of
occasions in which to justify his office, but he has never made a more incomprehensible decision than in forbidding a public presentation of this distinguished and moving play. Bitter
Harvest is a play about Byron which depicts the catastrophe which overwhelmed part of his life as a result of his marriage with Aimabella Milbanke and the public censure of his relation- ship with his half-sister Augusta Leigh. It is a good play, admirably constructed, written with knowledge, discrimina- tion and intelligence, and with nothing sensational about it except its merit. One cannot even begin to guess the grounds on which the Censor has refused it a licence. If there is any logic .in that official's decisions, its theme cannot be the reason, since the doors of public theatres have now been opened to The Cenci. It must therefore be some element in its treatment which has given offence, but what that element is -must be left to the discovery of those with keener noses for impropriety than mine. Meanwhile it will be regrettable that, if this ban is maintained (which of course it will not necessarily be), playgoers will be robbed of one of their relatively rare opportunities to sec a genuinely good and interesting play.
They will also be robbed of the opportunity of seeing some exceptionally good acting. The evening's honours go to Mr. Eric Portman who, in addition to looking incredibly like Byron, manages with remarkable skill to suggest both the brilliant temper of his character's mind and the superficial gaiety and essential melancholy of his temperament. Miss Clare Harris is superbly majestic as Lady Melbourne, and Miss Mary. Wynne and Miss Norah Robinson are as good as one could wish as Augusta and as Lady Byron. But, apart from Mr. Portman's, the best performances of the evening come from Mr. John Abbott, who plays Byron's long-suffering man- servant with devoted gloom, and Miss Martita Hunt, who provides an enchantingly urbane portrait of Lady Oxford. It will be a great pity if they and this play are not given an opportunity of delighting a larger audience.
DEREK VERSCHOYLE.
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