“THE UNFAIR SEX”

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 45, 17 November 1926, Page 4

“THE UNFAIR SEX”

NEW COMPANY IN BRIGHT FARCICAL COMEDY “The Unfair Sex," a farcical comedy in three cast, by Eric Hudson. Cast— Diana Trevor Zillah Bateman Geoffrey Trevor Campbell Copelin Harvey Fane Norman Carter Joan Delisse v era St. John Helen Delisse Henrietta Cavendish Sir Henry Hesketh, K.C .. Frank Bradley Pinker Sylvia Clifton Smith r ack Phillips It is not often our fortunate lot to see a new English company in an extremely modern play, vet such was the case at the Grand Opera House last night, when Joseph Cunningham’s Company presented “The Unfair Sex’’ in a man that augurs well for the success of the season here. It is a departure, too, to encounter a farcical comedy of this temper wherein the geometrical iontent takes the form of a square instead of the eternal triangle, for here the amusing complication concerns four voting people, each of whom is an interesting type. The comedy itself is crisplv written, li.wiorously conceived, perhaps a trifle edgy in places, but withal deliciously modern, and funny enough to keep a larger audience in a simmer of giggles throughout the performance. Here and there a lack of rehearsals was momentarily evident, but when the fiction is brightened a little and the time of performance cut down by a quarter of an hour, “The Unfair Sex,” will be a particularly lively entertainment. It treats of promiscuous flirtation, the birth-rate, the Divorce Court, and golf in the spirit of raillery, with a moral substratum not to be overlooked. Diana Trevor and her husband Geoffrey are a young childless couple, with a tendency to drift apart. Diana’s tendency is to drift towards Harvey Fane, a silly ass in plus fours and a monocle, and Geoffrey, who affects an abbreviated coat and Oxford flannels, is flirting deliberately with Joan Delisse. Another couple just as interesting are Helen Delisse (Joan’s mother, and Sir John Hesketh (Geoffrey’s uncle), a Divorce Court judge, who boasts that .hough he has never played the game of marriage he has umpired in it for thirty years. Sir Henry’s bee is the restricted birth-rate question, and stung deeply by his legal experience, he is for ever inveighing against childless couples and the consequences thereof. He finds endorsement of his views when he discovers Fane kissing Diana, and learns by accident that his nephew and Joan have been similarly indulging. Being a wily old gentleman and a wellwisher of all concerned, he accentuates the seriousness of these comparatively innocent misdemeanours by forcing husband and wife to regard divorce as the only way out of the trouble. Thereupon lie manages to introduce by faked evidence all-round misunderstandings, until the fun becomes fast and furious, and- the two men are at one. another’s throats. At length they all begin to realise that Uncle Henry has been “joshing” them, when they turn the tables on him by pretending that the breach is irreparable. While this has been going on Delisse is convinced that Sir Henry requires a hobby to make him normal, and she manages to provide him with two, golf and a peal of marriage bells, so that all ends happily.

The new company is an excellent one. Miss Zillah Bateman, a slim blonde, is bright, purposeful, convincing, and clever as Diana Trevor, shading the character nicely to the demands of the many comical situations. Miss Vera St. John (an ex-Wellingtonian) makes Joan a lively type of the modern flapper, with advanced views on love and marriage, and Miss Henrietta Cavendish exhibits a very telling voice, and abundant experience in the role of Helen Delisse The broad comedy falls to the lot of Mr. Norman Carter as Harvey Fane, who plays the silly ass to perfection. Air. Campbell Copelin as Geoffrey Trevor is a more athletic type, with a free, unconstrained method that is ingratiating, whilst Mr. Frank Bradley gave a really sterling performance as the Divorce Court judge. Miss Sylvia Clifton played Pinker, a maid, on broad lines, and Air. Jack Phillips was Smith, the cabby. The play will be performed for the next four nights.