THE THEATRE.
" AMPHITRYON ; OR, THE TWO SOMAS," BY DRYDEN : THE PHOENIX SOCIETY.
THE Phoenix Society have been blamed for choosing Amphitryon. for their twelfth production. They have been disapproved of by two parties : one who alleged that the play was too indecent, the other that it was too dull for public performance. When the play was actually on the boards before us I think on the whole the Society rather than the disapprovers was justified. The plot is certainly anything but edifying, but there is an air of unreality and of wit about the play that takes off from the greasiness, as apple sauce refines fat pork. Also in the Phoenix's interpretation we are spared any possible approach to a bedroom scene, and it is extraordinary how much milder than in the printed book things sounded in the atmosphere of a Palladian front hall. As for the second objection, that Amphitryon ; or, The Two Sosias is a dull play, there is something in it, yet on the whole the piece was well worth seeing. The first part of the first act is extraordinarily amusing, one of the wittiest things that Dryden ever wrote. It consists of a mildly unedifying, flippant, but very amusing conversation between a bewigged Mercury and a whip-cracking Phoebus as to the " goings-on " of their father Jupiter. To them presently descends from the top of the proscenium-arch Jupiter, also bewigged and conveyed in a most engaging machine adorned with formal pasteboard thunder- clouds. The three proceed to have an amusing debate about love, from which they drift on to the nature of absolute power, and this presently slides off, as Dryden was so apt to do whenever he was serious for a moment, into a discussion of Fate and Free Will, the subject that Dryden's curious mind could seldom quite keep off, even when he was rearranging The Tempest or Paradise Lost or writing correct odes.
Jove has conceived a passion for Alcmene, Amphitryon's wife, but he knows her chaste and thit he has no chance with her unless he impersonates her husband. This he does, whilst Mercury takes the part of the serving-man. The godhead of the disguised lovers—there is, of course, a sub-plot with the waiting-maid—gives in Dryden's dexterous hand a new and amusing turn to the regular formula for a comedy of intrigue. The playwright's cleverness is, in fact, delightfully apparent all through, except in what ought to be that climax and apex of the whole play, when the two Amphitryons and the two Sosias are brought face to face. Here unfortunately Dryden's hand grows languid, and nothing like the full dramatic use is made of an amusing predicament. I wonder if there is something which has been expunged here ? There was such a delightfully stage situation sticking out. Jupiter plays such a wretched, mean, pompous part. He should have been made to retire on to his machine again, clutching the remnants of his dignity about him and amid the hoots of the extremely irreverent Mercury. It is all so flat. The plot is throughout obviously topical. One sees the wavering ghost of an appli- cation in almost every line of it. Did Dryden go a little too far in this scene ? Did Majesty object and did the supple dramatist tone it down and tone the life out of it ? I like to think so, for our growing respect for Dryden as a brilliant technician must else here feel a cold wind blowing. The situation is almost thrown away, for the bits of extremely clever and witty dialogue with which these faulty scenes are trimmed do not cover the bad construction..
Of Purcell's music I am not competent to speak, but it seemed to me delicious, especially a pastoral duet, " in which the woman has to get the better of the man." The Phoenix has created its own standard of acting. On this occasion, when there were only a few members of the habitual cast, it was as good as ever. Miss Marda Venue as Phaedra has " a delicious assurance," whilst Miss Dorothy Massingham as Alcmene was fascinating and distinguished. The three Gods were excellent, and it was a pleasure to see Mr. Eugene Leahy in an important part. The Pennington String Quartet played most delicately.
But to end with a grumble, X really think that we have had enough Restoration plays for the moment. Will not some of the erudite members of the Society see if they cannot find some good eighteenth century plays ? I have myself a great fancy to see Addison's comedy, The Drummer (about the supposedly haunted house), acted. I suppose that the play that Hannah More wrote for Garrick, Percy, would be more than we could bear ? Or there are Mrs. Inchbald's plays. Sometimes in a morbid mood I- feel I should even like to see Irene.
Previous page
