“The Round Table”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 466, 22 September 1928, Page 24

“The Round Table”

Outline of Robinson’s Fantastic Play LITTLE THEATRE’S NEXT PRODUCTION Lennox Robinson’s play, “The Round Table,” contains that element of fantasy which seems to be the prerogative of the Irish playwrights. The Little Theatre Society will present this work at the Concert Chamber on Wednesday evening, and the following brief outline of the play will give theatre-goers some idea of the story. Act 1: We are introduced to the Drennan household, a thoroughly suburban establishment. Mrs. Drennan, engaged in some newspaper puzzle, is surrounded by her sons De Courcey and Jonty and her daughter Beatrice. They have had no food because Daisy, the indispensable daughter of this incompetent household, has not returned from her lectures at the university. Her arrival is an effusive greeting from the rest of the family, but she causes consternation by announcing her engagement to Chris Pegum. The family is aghast at the prospect of life without Daisy. Daisy suggests that she takes her family with her to Cork after she is married. Robinson then gives us some intimation of his theme when he makes Chris say: You’re queer, Daisy. There’s a little bit of you—or maybe a big bit of you—l don’t understand—-that I think I’m frightened of. Perhaps I’m marrying you to find it out. It is agreed that Mrs. Drennan shall go to live with Daisy and Chris. Just as the curtain falls we get another instance of the fantasy. Daisy is startled by seeing a woman’s face at the window. Act II: Chris and De Courcey dis-

cuss marriage. Philiu Fiahivc comes in. Daisy follows and there is more talk of marriage and the consequent upsetting of the Drennan home. This provides some excellent character drawing by the players. . Beatrice and Philip now decide to marry. In the conversation which follows between Chris and Daisy we again sense the dual personality which is the theme of the play. Daisy says: . . .It’s all such a puzzle—the things one does and says. Don’t you ever see them like something in a play or a book. Xamto be able to stand outside myself and watch myself as if I were somebody else—not Daisy Drennan at all, and then in the wink of an eye I’m Daisy Drennan again. Before the curtain falls the Woman comes in through the window. She tells Daisy how she left her home, husband and family because she got tired of them.

The Woman (to Daisy): But why shouldn’t I get tired of them? Think of the millions of men there are in the world, millions of houses, millions of children. Isn’t it almost inconceivable that the man I chanced to marry, for it is chance, you know, the house I chanced to live in, the child I chanced to bear, should be the one most suited to me?

A hint of Irish fatalism and fairy follows. The author expresses the horror of a drab life and existence. The woman talks of freedom and sets Daisy thinking of the wide world. Act III: The Woman passes Chris and Daisy on the railway station. They are seeing the family off after Bee’s marriage. Daisy suddenly sees herself and her past life—how she has worried about the family and small things which do Hot matter. She says she cannot marry Chris, but he exerts his influence and brings her back to earth. But Daisy’s other self asserts itself again. She buys the wrong ticket because she says the Woman wanted it. * Let the family all go their own way,” she says. She admits that the life she longs for is aimless and useless, but she wants life without life and without aim. Just as the train moves out Daisy jumps into a carriage and is gone.

The Drennan family cling round Chris for protection. They are so helpless without Daisy to look after them.

“You are too strong for me now,” Chris says as the curtain falls. “But take care. Some day the tap may come on my window.”-

It is reported that Sir George Wilkins, the Arctic air explorer, is engaged to marry an Australian actress, Suzanne Bennett, in New York. Miss Bennett is said to have appeared with Lee White on the Tivoli circuit, and to have played in “Chu Chin Chow.”