RADIO
The School for Scandal last week committed felo de se before it began in its choice of Lady Teazle. On the stage mis-casting can be concealed, or at any rate mitigated, by the pleasures of the eye. In radio drama, where it is vox et praeterea whit, a character must stand or fall by itself; Lady Teazle must be there in the larynx. In Sheridan's time, and for long after him, our comic theatre was a theatre of " humours "—or as we should say, types. (Mr. Stephen Williams has brilliantly pointed out elsewhere how the first per- formance of the play in 1777 was given by a company " cast to type.") How important, then, that its characters should conform, on the air, to such firmly sketched prototypes ! I have a great reluctance in blaming last week's Lady Teazle, for she was played by that excellent young actress, Miss Jessica Spencer, who was altogether charming and tender in a recent television production of Spring t600. But her talent is for the lyrically grave and reflective ; there was none of the Teazle caprice, the vexatious wit, in her voice. Lady Teazle is, after all, only the Miss Hoyden of A Trip to Scar- borough after some months' polish in Town (Mrs. Abingdon created both parts), and there is still some hoydenish bounce left in her. Of Miss Spencer I felt as Michael felt of Morris Finsbury: "There's a want of vivacity about you.... You may be deep, but I'm damned if you're vivacious ! "
Previous page
