“LOVE IN A MIST”

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 196, 17 May 1944, Page 10

“LOVE IN A MIST”

Wellington Repertory In Bright Comedy ‘•Love in a Mist,” the sparkling ultramodern and deliciously flippant little comedy by Kenneth Horne, presented p.V the Wellington Repertory Theatre at the Technical College assembly hall last night, kept a large, responsive audience Higgling with laughter for a couple of ours. Its fun has a meteorological slant, as the two couples involved would never have become so comically entangled were it not that, when motoring, both 'become lost in one of Exmoor s blanket fogs, which shut out the world and keeps everyone’s nerves on edge. Both find sanctuary in the Evans s home, run by a garrulous shrew and her speechless imbecile husband. It is the wedding night of Pat aud Nigel. The same cannot be said of Howard and Hose, who are doing a spot of modern week-ending, yet actually scared to death of one another. It is the fear of consequences that makes Rose appeal to Pat to help her out of the mess she imagines she is in with Howard (who is the only son of her employer). Actually Howard, a novelist, is only on the lookout for colour for his next book-, and is quite happy when Pat and Rose decide to sleep together, leaving the men to make the best of the prosaic livingroom, • n The comedy is unusually well cast, and was played with an ease and verve that reflected credit on the players ami the producer, Mr. Cedric Gardner, hound character acting marked the performance Of Elsie Lloyd, who made a prattling gorgon of the fearsome Mrs. Evans, lit. menacing and foreboding attitude to her fog-bound boarders was rendered all tne more eerie by the emphasis with which Elsie Lloyd invested the old girl (who never let on that there was a good hotel only a mile awayj. Lesley Jackson, tut brightest of Wellington's ingenue actresses, looked verv smart ns Pat. and acted the love-lorn bride with much charm 0. manner, not lacking spirit either, w.iea her toes were trodden upon. Rose was also brightly acted by Betty Glenn. Robert Charlton was happily cast as the breezv, good-natured, Nigel, who change! when he finds.that be is being manoeuvred out of his marital rights. Much more placid and smooth was Stanley I «*>n s excellent performance as Howard. Witnout a word to speak, Eric Lawson, as the mentally feeble Mr. Evans, haunted the action of the comedy effectively. Ihe mid-Vietorian furnishings and the clever lighting effects helped the illusion considerably. ~, , , 1 ‘•Love in a Mist” will be played the rest of the week.