‘Berkeley Square’

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 654, 4 May 1929, Page 24

‘Berkeley Square ’

Theme Might Have Been Master-Piece TIME TAPE-MEASURE “Berkeley Square,” which has been reveived in London, has received an enthusiastic reception and more superlatives have been expended on Jean Forbes Robertson’s work in the leading role. The idea of “Berkeley Square” is that time does not proceed in rigid sequence, like the inches on a steel ruler, writes a London critic. Time is, rather, to be considered as a tape-measure lying in folds. Thrust a pin through it, and you will find that the same pin may pierce the sixth and the sixtieth inch on the measure. So it is argued, one individuality may exist in the 18th and 20th centuries. Vary the metaphor. A boat is coming down a winding river with high banks. A few minutes ago the man on the boat saw a field of wheat; now he sees beside him a field of clover; soon, when he has passed the next curve in the stream, he will find himself in a country of woods. To him, these are the past, the present and the future—the past seemingly irrecoverable, the future as yet unknown. But, to an airman flying above him, wheat, clover and forest are simultaneously visible. So, it is argued, all time is simultaneous in the view of reality; the divisions we make in it are unreal divisions, the product of our imperfect apprehension; there is no barrier between What Was and What Is to one whose sense of the past is fully developed. Peter Standish of 1928 and Peter Standish, his ancestor of 1784, were capable of transferring themselves in time. The 18th century Peter came to live with his modern descendants, but of his adventure we know nothing except by brief report. At the same

time, the 20th century Peter found himself in the London of Sir Joshua Reynolds and Dr. Johnson. His adventure is the substance of the play. The opportunity for satirical social comment is great, and the authors have made full use of it. In a beautiful scene and amid beautiful costumes, we see Peter struggling with the manners of the past—causing a sensation at White’s because he turns his back in horror when the Prince of Wales, “the First Gentlemain in Europe,” blows his nose with his fingers, and causing an even greater sensation by insisting on washing himself all over every day and despising the dandies of the period because they will not do likewise.

He meets the great Duchess of Devonshire at a ball, and dazzles and confuses her by sprinkling his conversation with the epigrams of Oscar Wilde. He upsets Sir Joshua Reynolds by talking of a portrait of Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse at a moment when the portrait is but begun and its title is still a secret. He gets into an infinity of trouble because he knows too much of the future and is for ever letting his knowledge of it appear, with the result that he is solemnly believed to be a magician practising the black arts. Peter falls in love with Helen Petigrew, who alone, among all the 18th century company, knows the truth of him and understands it. She falls in love with him. Here, then, are two lovers brought together, but soon when Peter returns to his own age, to be inexorably separated. Theirs is a love set apart from time, a love of spirit for spirit that can have no consummation on earth. When Peter kisses Helen he says, and says truly: “There never was such a kiss as that in all the history of the world.” There is the great theme of the play, the theme that might have made it a masterpiece. It is not that. Some quality of profound ecstasy is lacking; the universal significance of these lovers, though it is perceived, is not felt. But even this part of the play has been greatly strengthened since its first appearance. The love scenes are not great poetry, which they need to be if the theme is to be completely realised, but they are beautiful and moving. Leslie Howard and Jean Forbes-Robertson play them with a lyrical tenderness that gives them a magical, fairy-like colour.

How many present-day actresses could accomplish the feat which stands to the credit ot Nellie Stewart and Madame Marian Burton? asks an Australian paper. At the old Melbourne Opera House, where the present Tivoli now stands, Miss Stewart and Madame Burton alternately appeared in the leading “boy” and “girl” parts in the comic opera “Boccaccio.” In the same remarkable season they were associated in “Paul Jones,” and in 1892. in London, they appeared together in “Blue-eyed Susan” and “Paul Jones.” About four years previously Miss Stewart sang Marguerite nightly in Gounod's “Faust” for 24 performances. It was in this season that Federici, as Mephistopheles, died while apparently descending with Faust to the lower regions.