PRESS CUTTINGS:
YOU NEVER CAN TELL (1932)
[WEST MIDDLESEX GAZETTE, 17 December 1932 ]
Passages in square brackets are lost or indistinct in the original cutting
SHAW'S "COMMERCIAL PLAY"
The Questors Deem it Worth Producing
MODERN TREATMENT OF 1896 WORK
One can almost visualise the time when a dramatist will feel flattered if his work is taken up by The Questors. The programme of their production of Shaw's You Never Can Tell, at St. Martin's Hall, West Acton, on Friday, contained a note in which the following appeared:-
"It (the play) called down criticisms on the author's head for: 'writing down to the public,' for writing 'a commercial play.'... Why, then, have we deemed it worth producing? Have we been hypnotised into believing that everything bearing the magic signature of `GBS' is above criticism ? Not so..."
And then follows some good reasons for producing You Never Can Tell, the chief one being the Questors' opinion that it is an admirable example of a "commercial" play possessing definite artistic value.
Here then, is a dramatic society, that exercises a censorship over playwrights, producers, financiers, and everyone else connected with the theatre. Arrogant? Perhaps. Bold.? Yes.
Refreshing, too, to find a society that can give sound reasons for producing a certain play.
You Never Can Tell was written in 1896, but it does not date itself unduly. Many of the conventions at which Shaw [hits] still remain and the Questors acted [wisely] in treating it in a modern way and not as a period play. The Questors also showed how attractive simple settings can be made. The judicious use of tapestry was far more effective than the poor scenery before which some societies seem content to play. Unfortunately the tapestry took a long time to arrange and, the intervals were far too long, even the playing of Mrs. Talbot Barnard's orchestra failing to relieve the tedium.
SPLENDID ELOCUTION
This play did not make as great a demand upon the acting ability of The Questors as many plays of less merit would have done. It has the Shavian characteristic of a lot of talk and in regard to some of the parts one had the impression that elocution and memory counted for more than actual dramatic art. The memory of the players was not particularly good and there was far too much prompting. Their elocution was splendid and I must pay a tribute both to their clarity of speech and to their judgment in securing just the right volume. The latter point is apt to be overlooked and one frequently finds some members of a cast failing to make their words carry and others shouting unnecessarily. The Questors were very even.
Sparkling is the best word to apply to three members of the cast — Mr. Cyril Thomas (Valentine), Miss Gwendolen Thomas (Dolly Clandon), and Mr. Alfred Emmet (Philip Clandon). They acted brightly enough to secure a lightness right through the play that effectively offset some long expressions of Shavian opinion that might well have become. wearying.
For sheer acting it was hard to find anyone to better the work of Mr. Philip Woollcombe (Fergus Crampton). He had to be heavy and hard enough to justify his wife having left him and isolated his children from him and he had also to show enough sentimentality to excite some sympathy. He did a difficult job well.
CONTRASTS NEEDED
Miss Margot Brett, as Gloria Clandon, and Mrs. Mabel Frere, as Mrs. Clandon, had parts that began as if cast in the same mould and then parted. They were women with very definite views on men, women, and marriage, love being considered something: that did not exist. Mrs. Clandon was consistent, but in her daughter's case it was pretence—conscientious pretence, but pretence nevertheless. So Miss Brett had the harder task. She succeeded in being something of an enigma, but I am inclined, to think that she should have drawn greater contrasts; she always seemed too subdued and there were times when she could have come out of her shell with advantage to her own work and the general interpretation of the play. Miss Frere gave a very level display, but the criticism of Miss Brett applies In some measure to her. The part had its highlights, but they were not reached.
Allowance must be made for the fact that Mrs. Frere was a sick woman. I was told afterwards that she had difficulty in playing through the last act, and that she could not appear at all on Saturday, when her part was read by Miss Barbara Sharp. Mrs. Frere showed great pluck in getting to the [....]
THE UNUSUAL WAITER
Mr Kenneth McKenzie's playing of the waiter was good. For the benefit of those who do not know the play and to do full justice to Mr. McKenzie it must be added that the waiter is no ordinary member of his calling, but one whose son has been called to the bar. He takes the view that if it is a disadvantage to a barrister to have a waiter for a father, it is also a 'disadvantage to a waiter to have a barrister for a son. He never presumes; on the contrary he is always conscious of his inferiority.
Mr. Philip Ellcott, as the son, would also have been good but for his memory lapses, these destroying the value of lines that needed emphatic first-time pronunciation to be really effective.
Mr. Ewart Shellshear, as the Clandons' solicitor, had the spirit of both the play and the part, but he did not bring much imagination to bear in his [....]
[MIDDLESEX COUNTY TIMES, 17 December 1932]
A SHAVIAN PLAY
"You Never Can Tell," by The Questors
Only this week Mr John Ervine has given it as his opinion that no living author has forced the world to think — sometimes with him, oftener against him, but always to think — as has Mr. Bernard Shaw. The choice of one of his comedies, therefore, by The Questors, as the only play to which this season the public was invited, was in line with their educative policy. You never can tell what effect the play of this name will produce upon any audience, for to enjoy, or even to understand Shaw, players and audience most co-operate in the creation of a Shavian atmosphere, but so word-perfect were the performers that none of their energies were squandered on remembering their lines, and they were, consequently, free to throw into their parts all that they knew of Shavian interpretation. Some among the audience in St. Martin's Hall, West Acton, on Friday and Saturday evenings in last week actively helped The Questors to get over the play; others, as is always inevitable when Shaw is staged, held themselves determinedly aloof.
DIFFICULT PARTS
The casting of such a play as You Never Can Tell presents considerable difficulty to amateurs, and on the whole The Questors succeeded quite well. They were particularly fortunate in their Valentine. Mr. Cyril Thomas tackled this difficult part of the "5/- a time" dentist in a seaside town in a way which resulted in the character becoming not only alive in the Shavian cast-to-type sense, but in the more human manner of the everyday world, which is far distant from the world of GBS. Mr. Philip Woollcombe's study of fatherhood in the character of Fergus Crampton was another piece of successful portraiture. Fergus is a tantalising fellow, terribly easy to over-do, but Mr. Woollcombe, who had also on his shoulders the onus of producing, never fell into extravagance or ranting. On the other hand, he gained the sympathies of the audience for the matrimonial sorrows that incompatibility of temperament had resulted in.
You Never Can Tell without a good actor in the part of William, the waiter, is like Hamlet with Hamlet left out. Mr. Kenneth McKenzie acted easily and well in this role, although one missed the unctuous urbanity which gave so abiding charm to the characterisation by Louis Calvert.
Mr. Alfred Emmet carried complete conviction as Philip Clandon, romping through life like a playful lion cub. Those who know Mr. Emmet off the stage can gather from this description how well he acted. He was "partnered," as it were, in his study of the high spirits and the unquenchable optimism of adolescence by Mrs. Gwendolen Thomas in the role of his younger sister, Dolly, whom the first act reveals in the dental chair. Life to these two was a frolic. They never let this attitude collapse. Miss Margot Brett had a great deal to do as Gloria Clandon, a girl who has many points in common with Anne in Man and Superman. The strongest point in Miss Brett's study of Gloria was the definite revelation she made of the struggle going on within her of romantic longings and inhibition's.
Mr Philip Elliott created an excellent impression as William's successful barrister son, Bohun. His only fault was in make-up; he hardly looked 37.
Sudden illness, it will be remembered, prevented Mabel Frere from acting her role as Dona Barbarita in the performance of The Romantic Young Lady by The Questors last April. She was again taken ill on this occasion, and although she pluckily carried through her part on Friday, Miss Barbara Sharp (stage Manager) had to come to the rescue on Saturday, and when she read the part of Mrs. Clandon with pluck and a large measure of success. Mr. Ewart Shellshear was not altogether happily cast as Mr. Finch McComas, the lawyer. To be just a plain, straight man on the stage is not so easy as it sounds. Mrs. Mia McKenzie took the role of the parlour-maid, and the Misses Dolly Browne, Eileen Grigg, and Agnes Copnall were efficient hotel waitresses.
Mr. John Ruck acted as assistant stage manager.
During, the intervals an orchestra under the direction of Mrs.Talbot Barnard, and consisting of Mrs. Hewson, the Misses Havelock Davies, Gammelien, Heaver and M. de la Planque, played pleasingly.
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