“ SUSAN AND GOD ”

Waikato Times, Volume 128, Issue 21371, 15 March 1941, Page 13

“ SUSAN AND GOD ”

PRODUCTIONS IN SYDNEY SEMI-SOPHISTICATED COMEDY I Whatever there was in the screen version of “ Susan and God " which caused the Commonwealth Film Cen- ! sor to reject it, was not apparent in i the stage version, presented at the Minerva Theatre, says the Sydney : Sim. I After the atmosphere of a smart ! country house party,, it develops into j a simple semi-sophisticated comedyi romance for sentimental souls. ; Susan is a self-centred society j humbug who turns to soul-uplift as ! a fad and gets busy upsetting the lives of her none-too-moral friends. Her husband, a drunkard from whom she is more or less estranged, takes her seriously. Tempted by the promise of a divorce if he breaks his pledge to reform, she reluctantly agrees to spend a quiet summer with him and their daughter.

The ending is the obvious one, | jealousy being the final spur that I sends Susan back to her husband’s j arms.

The first scene was dragging unevenly, as sometimes happens on first nights, when Claude Flemming, as the reprobate husband, pulled the show together with a fine piece of restrained and sincere acting. As his wife, petite and talented Marjorie Gordon, after the first act, was able to give reality to a not very convincing character.

Dorothea Dunstan proved a youthful actress of more than usual ability in the role of the schoolgirl daughter. Madge Aubrey and Mary Ward had plenty to do as Charlotte Manly and Irene Burroughs respectively. Others who played their parts well were Pat McDonald, Frank Bradley and Lloyd Lamble. Marie Ney in Noel Coward Play The universal sanguinary adjective that begins with B and is, rather unfairly, given a particular association in Australia, occurred more than once in Noel Coward’s “Ways ana Means” and “ Private Lives,” at the Theatre Royal, says the Sydney Sun. That doesn’t mean that either play is crude. Both are sophisticated and candid with a vein of cynicism. The first night audience found them highly entertaining. They provoked appreciative laughter—not sniggering. Apart from a frankness of language, which, after all, is typical of today, Noel Coward has a gift of romance, poetry, and human heart-beat. “ Private Lives, which was seen in Sydney about seven years ago, centres in two divorced people, who met at the start of their second honeymoons and eloped together. “ We’ve loved each other for eight years—three married and five divorced.” said the woman.

Acting honours in both plays went to Marie Ney—sophisticated, temperamental, yet vital—and handsome Hal Thompson. Jane Connolly acted excellently in a less glamorous role, and Richard Parry was as pompous as the author doubtless intended him to be, and his collar-stud search was genuine comedy. _________