“OUR BETTERS”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 479, 8 October 1928, Page 15

“OUR BETTERS”

AT HIS MAJESTY'S TO-NIGHT This evening at His Majesty’s Theatre Miss Margaret Bannerman and Anthony Prinsep’s Company will be presented by the J. C. Williamson, Dtd. management in the first production in New Zealand of Somerset Maugham’s clever and phenomenally successful comedy, “Our Betters,” which created ’ a furore in every city in which it has been produced. The* play is said to be finely wrought, constructed to stand on its own merits, and its glittering dialogue is one of its outstanding features. “Never,” wrote a critic recently, “was construction so defied in its conventions. The lusts of the flesh palpitate heavily before us. Modern selfishness, vanity, sensuality, hypocrisy, scandal, falsehood and snobbery parade glibly in all their naked rampant impudence, blissfully unconscious of their wretchedness. Here is our new Congreve with a dazzling electric toi*ch flashing its rays into the dark summer

house of society’s garden and amusing the onlookers by the startling spectacle disclosed by Somerset Maugham."It was in “Our Betters” that Miss Bannerman scored one of her best triumphs in London. It is said that her grace and charm carry the play on a buoyant wave from the first drawing-room episode to the last, and it is undoubtedly her brilliant performance as the clever but unscrupulous Lady George Grayston that has materially assisted to make “Our Betters” the wonderful success it has been everywhere. The cast includes Ellis Irving, Louis Goodrich, G. Kay Souper, Geoffrey Millar, Frederick Hughes, Pirie Bush, Kerry Kelly, Cicely Jonas, Dorothy Dunckley and Arthur Cornell. The magnificent model frocks worn by Miss Bannerman during the progress of “Our Betters” created something like a sensation in Sydney, and the scenery, by the late John Harker, and the elaborate furnishings are special features, of the presentation. Only three performances can be staged of “Our Betters,” which will be followed by three productions of “Sexes and Sevens” and two of “Diplomacy.”’