STAGE AND SCREEN The Theatre
"Tovarich." By Jacques Deval. At the Lyric—" io66 and All That." By Reginald Arkell. At the Strand.
Tax .average Russian exists. Less palpable and distinct perhaps than the average American or the average German,
he is as real, as recognizable, and as interesting as the average Italian, the average Frenchman, or the average Englishman. But though he exists he is never, outside -Russia itself,
exhibited to . the public view on the. stage. In the alien theatre he has been forcibly endowed with the services of a deputy, the stage Russian, a figure true only to his own type and bearing about as much relation to reality as does that other monstrous imaginative symbol, the stage Chinese. M. Deval and Mr. Sherwood, his American adaptor, faithfully observe this unnecessary convention with the two stage Russians who are the central figures of this play and once again prove, by the very facility with which they achieve a commonplace success, that it is fully time for these theatrical toys to be.returned to their boxes to make room for successors bearing a more up-to-date device.
- Prince Mikail Alexandrovitch Ouratieff and his wife the Archduchess Tatiana Petrovna live, as all exiled Russians within. the theatre do, in Paris. Though their home—again, as is usual—is a single room in a cheap hotel, and their food is provided mainly by the nimble fingers of the Archduchess when the eyes of grocers are providentially averted, we find that they are in the habit of receiving deferential visits from the Governor of the Bank of France—the reason for these displays of unilateral esteem being the sum of four billion francs deposited in the Bank, in Prince Mikan's name, a dozen years ago. Their private capital is almost exhausted, but they refuse to draw on this other sum to save themselves from starvation, since it was entrusted to Prince Mikail by the Czar and must be restored intact to the next Czar to reign. So Prince Mikail and the Archduchess Tatiana take a position as a married couple in the house of a prosperous banker; In domestic service they are a tremendous success; becoming indispensable both to their employers and to their employers' children. It seems that they are settled for life when Commissar Gorotchenko comes to dinner. With his arrival the play changes its tone. Commissar Gorotchenko is the man whom of all men they both have most reason to hate, but he comes to ask their assistance. He reveals that the object of the dinner party is to discuss an important business negotiation. Russia is in need of money. To get it, either she must sell the lease of a valuable oil-field to a foreign power or Prince Mikail, with the Czar's money, must preserve it for her and Make it possible for her to work it herself. Prince Mikail's decision, arrived at after a few moments of anxious debate, permits the play to end on an appropriately wistful note.
• As a whole Tovarich is an effective piece.of nonsense. The first act is slow and tedious, but the second, in which we learn how the two Russians captivate their employers, exploits neat situations well, is written with a pleasant wit, and is in brief extremely entertaining. The third act, in which the solemn issue of the Czar's fortune is decided, is less successful, and one is conscious of a regret that such a theme, with a possible re- lation to ordinary affairs, should have been permitted to invade the world of nonsense. But these doubts will not afflict everyone, and no one can fail to enjoy the acting of Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Madame Eugenie Leontovich, Mr: Evelyn Roberts and most of the other members of an extremely talented cast.
1066 And AU That, adapted from Mr. Sakes and Mr. Ye,atman's well-known contribution to historical theory, is an excellent joke. It starts (none too -well) with the appearance of a platoon of Caesar's soldiers and ends in the contemporary days of the Prophet Belisha. The scenes vary considerably in merit, but of the thirty only three are ineffective, and the best are very good indeed. This is an opportunity to note that 1066 And AU That is announced among the pro- ductions of the next Malvern Theatre Festival. It implies no disregard for its merits as an irresponsible entertainment to say that it is difficult to conceive of a piece more essentially-
Previous page
