Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Monday 3 November 1952, page 2


Double Bill Presented

By Shavians

A double bill which opened at the Shavian Playhouse on Saturday night was performed, for the most part, on a steady level of industrious mediocrity

Unless acted in a neo-romantic, bravura style, "Man Of Destiny" emerges as hardly more than a parade of preciosity, a fledgling effort, a page from a playwright's notebook Even though trademarked with Shaw's satirical till-ing at love, war, politics, and the English people, its form is to some extent derived from 19th century costume melodrama

Edward Jackson's stage direc-tion provided a sound framework which the cast seemed unable to fill with enough flounce and flourish A good deal of the act-ing was intelligent and wellspoken, there were certainly no intolerable blunders made But somehow it was too polite and suburban; it lacked spaciousness

and colour

OUTSIDE RANGE

Brian Anderson turned Napol-eon into a testy, energetic muni-cipal councillor, he seldom sug gested the cold command, the irresistible drive or the slightly ludicrous pomposity of the con-quering Corsican Technically his portrayal suffered from blurred diction More important still, the character was tar out-side the range of his pleasant, homely personality.

David Lloyd's honest vigour could not cope with the comic complexities of the inept army officer. However, Reg Lye contri-buted a neat sketch of the garru-lous old innkeeper. As the mysterious lady spy, Moya O'sul-livan was rather brash and im-mature; yet, apart from the ques-tion of interpretation, quite lively and appealing

"How He Lied To Her Hus-band," the first piece on the pro-gramme defeated the limited his-trionic resources of Judith Hill. Jon Duncan, and Frank. Curtain Miss Hall maintained a (airly balanced approach, otherwise the production shifted uneasily be-tween mock formality, rowdy farce, and prim understatement Pitched in a querulous key, it never captured Shaw's irrespon

Isible, holiday mood.-,

A.A.