“Our Betters”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 340, 28 April 1928, Page 24

“Our Betters”

Somerset Maugham’s Play Stands Revival

SATIRE ON RICH AMERICANS WHO MARRY ENGLISHMEN

Although it is 11 years since Somerset Maugham’s “Our Betters” was first produced in England, it was revived recently in America with great success. Constance Collier and Ina Clair, two accomplished actresses, played the leading roles. The play will be done in New Zealand by Margaret Bannerman. Writing of the recent New York revival an American critic says: Although the lustre of “Our Betters” is the property of the two chief actresses, Mr. Maugham has laid down the tightly-fitted surface they polish with their playing. He has put his characters together from materials long familiar to him and he has set up a framework that prevents them from degenerating into bore 3. His play has the suave air of being morally incensed (incensed discreetly on both sides) about rich Americans who buy English titles in the marriage market, smash their way imperviously into English society and look down with disdain upon the Americans who still live in provincial America. Simulating a candour that is never quite

frank in any of his plays, Mr. Maugham reduces both the Americans and the English to the same dead level. When Pearl is justifying herself for being Arthur Fenwick’s mistress, she packs the whole situation in one speech to her horrified sister. “You know exactly what I’ve got. Eight thousand a year. D’ you think I could have got the losition I have on that? You’re not under the impression all the world comes to my house because of my charms, are you? I’m not. You don’t think the English want us here? You don’t think they like us marrying their men? Good heavens, when you've known England as long as I have you’ll realise that in their hearts they still look upon us as savages and Red Indians. We have to force ourselves upon them. They come to me because I amuse them. Very early in my career I discovered that the English can never resist getting something for nothing. If a dancer is the they’ll see her at my house. If a fiddler is in vogue they’ll hear him at my concerts. I give fashion. I’ve got power. I’ve got influence. But everything, I’ve got, my success, my reputation, my notoriety, I’ve bought it, bought it, bought it!”

For the good of international relations in 1917, when every American was in duty bound to love every Englishman, “Our Betters” was obligingly withdrawn. Mr. Maugham’s prestige as a playwright is the product of his viable technique, his fluid dialogue and his propensity for keeping two seconds in advance of his times. Although “Our Betters” makes a tea-pot to-do over the snobberies of rich Americans in London, the theatrical life of the comedy goes to nothing deeper than competition in love. Pearl brazenly appropriates the Duchess’s youthful lover in the teahouse “Once too often, my dear, once too often.” When the flushed lovers return, the Duchess’s wrath makes an exciting climax to the second act and keeps the conclusion pleasantly uncertain all through the third. Steeped an the perfumed society of titled automaton who dress brilliantly and patter iglibty the situation seems less common JB ,

than it is. For without tossing off epigrams, Mr. Maugham can turn phrases smartly. In the first scene he can catch the fashionable looseness of his characters with this rapid colloquy: Bessie—- “ Does George know?” Pearl—“ Who is George?” Bessie—“ Don’t be absurd. Pearl. George—your husband.” Or he can amusingly describe their general incapacity for living by setting down this bored conversation about the Duchess’s spineless gigolo: Pearl:Why doesn’t he get a job? Duchess: I’ve been trying to get him something, but it’s so difficult. You’ve got such a lot of influence, Pearl, can’t you do something? I should be so grateful. Pearl: What can be do ? Duchess: Anything. And as you know he’s very good looking. Pearl: Does he know French and German? Duchess: No, he has no gift for languages. Pearl: Can he type and write shorthand? Duchess: Oh, no, poor dear, you can hardly expect that. Pearl: Can he do accounts? Duchess: No, he has no he id for figures. Pearl (reflectively): Well, the only thing I can see that he’d do for is a government office. - -