Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Monday 16 October 1939, page 3


"THE DOCTOR'S DILEMMA."

Bright Production.

As it was 11 o'clock when the Bryants Play- house actors finished the foutth act of "The Doctor's Dilemma on Saturday night, Miss Beryl Bryant said that they would end the play there instead of proceeding to act five. "Unless of course," she added "you really want us to go on."

Murmurs of "Go on!" "Yes, the fifth act!"

arose amongst the audience and presently the play was completed.

Now that a good deal of time has passed and Bernard Shaw's brilliant impudence which once was startling, has been accepted in the theatrical tradition, The "Doctor's Dilemma" is seen to be a thin play. But the dialogue still has abundance of cleverness in it and the hits at the medical profession still excite easy laughter.

Miss Bryant who produced the comedv had wisely given it a period flavour bv putting her actors into Edwardian dress. In contrast with this formal quaintness, the malice of Shaw took an added bite; his writing seemed freerer and more adventurous. In other words one saw these qualities in perspective.

The members of the cast who were headed by George Bryant as Sir Patrick Cullen made the doctors and their friends and servants a lively lot with weil defined characters. At later performances the frequent forgetting of lines will probably be remedied and the whole tempo of the play be hastened to its great

benefit.