Unsurpassed Performance
| HAVE heard no better BBC World Theatre performance than that of Margaret Leighton as Natalya Petrovna in Turgenev’s A Month in the Country. Gladys Young, and Fay Compton have equalled but surely not .surpassed her. | From the languid boredom of the open- | ing to the confused sadness ofthe end, through the high comedy of the conversations with Beliayev, the tutor for whose affections Natalya is a rival of her ward, Miss Leighton gave such a convincing and nicely-shaded portrayal that she over-shadowed even the exceptional competence of the others. I had not heard this play before} and the first thing that struck me was how like Chekhov it was, until, as the comedy developed, I realised that the mood was that of A House of Gentlefolk rather than of The Cherry Orchatd, with less pity and lyricism than Chekhov, but still with a subtly-evoked atmosphere of its own. What admirable radio plays these Russian plays make-such good talk, such human insight, and such an admirable shape, which the ear picks out like the form of a sonata. And, in this case, the delicately-mannered playing of the cast seemed to me perfection itself.
J.C.
R.
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 762, 26 February 1954, Page 10
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196Unsurpassed Performance New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 762, 26 February 1954, Page 10
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