CONTEMPORARY ARTS
THE THEATRE
The Anatomist. By James Bridie. (Westminster.)
THIS excellent play, to which Mr. Alastair Sim's revival does full justice, draws its strength and its subtle flavour of originality from the interplay of contrasts. Dr Knox's noble and humanitarian purpose is furthered by organised murder ; the foulest crime battens on the highest ideals. Dr Knox himself, so imperious and sultanic, is reduced to the dimensions of a small boy of feminine perception. The Irishness of Burke and Hare sets them just the right distance apart from the other citizens of Edinburgh, just as the Englishness of Raby gives a kind of extra perspective to the Scottish interiors which he frequents. It is all managed very neatly, very unobtru- sively, and it gives the play an attractive flavour, at once warm and dry, like the flavour of a good sherry.
The Rector of Edinburgh University (the news of Mr. Sim's election narrowly preceded the rise of the curtain on the first night) gave a highly 'intelligent but rather unpredictable interpretation of Dr. Knox. Every moment of it was enjoyable, every line was effec- tive ; yet at the end of the play one was still wondering (perhaps Mr. Sim intended this ?) what kind of a man Knox was. It was almost as if, having missed reading Knox's obituary, we had been given one of those appreciations beginning, "As one who knew him intimately, may I be permitted to add a few words to . . . " As often happens, Mr. Sim's appreciation reveals facets of the character which were not more than implicit in the obituary ; but it leaves us with a slight, a very slight, feeling of inconclusiveness. His pro- duction, on the other hand, is above criticism ; Mr. Bridie could ask for no more lively and intuitive presentation of his play.
The acting is uniformly good. Miss Elenna Fraser and Miss Alexis France sparkle persuasively in the Disharts' drawing-room, Mr. Liam Redmond and Mr. Michael Ripper go about their frightful business with a queasy gaiety and Miss Mollie Urquhart invests a doomed trollop with endearing warmth. Mr. George Cole brings life and humour to a young man who could easily have been colour- less, and Mr. Derek Bloomfield is sturdily and memorably inane as
the Sassenach Raby. An enjoyable evening. PETER FLEMING.
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