... By Horace Horsnell The Dark River (Whitehall) ABSENCE, they say, makes the heart grow fonder, and exile deepens the longing for home. Subtler, more deeply hidden longings, they tell us, are a common malady. These may range from unconscious desire to return to carefree childhood, to regret for more adult havens of lost happiness and content. Appreciating the dramatic possibilities ol such a ...

... By Horace Horsnell The Lisbon Story (Hippodrome) LIBRETTISTS who seek to break away from hampering convention in their writing of -'books for musical plays need all the encouragement they can get. They are a kind of perpetual pioneers, faced with pitfalls and problems that might well daunt genius itself. Few are as fortunate-- or for that' matter as successful-- as Da Ponte, who adapted the ...

... By Horace Horsnell Street and Low (Ambassadors) THIS witty revue has little in common with the lullaby from which its equivocal title is taken. Its sweetness is more tart, its lowness less balmy than the wind of the western sea. That is as it should be, for true revue is no respecter of sentiment. The dictionary defines it as a loosely constructed play or series of scenes or spectacles ...

... By Horace Horsnell Uncle Vanya (Westminster) WHEN the Stage Society produced Uncle Vanya in 1914, Chekov was, to us, still a comparatively unknown dramatist. And members of that select audience before which he made his English debut were so taken by surprise that some of them, we are told, after twiddling their critical thumbs before turning them down, walked out of the theatre. Though not yet ...

... By Horace Horsnell The Merchant of Venice (I\etc) ALTHOUGH The Merchant of Venice is one of the most popular of the comedies, the professional playgoer seldom looks for ward to it with great expectations. He has been disappointed too often. Poor productions litter his memory, in which actors, having no music in their souls, over-rationalized or threw away such lovely verse as the text, in ...

... By Horace Horsnell Hi-de-Hi (Palace) SUCH a title as Hi-de-Hi suggests that the show itself will have unconventional features. And, sure enough, it has. Bud Flanagan sees to that. He is one of our most redoubtable outragers of dull decorum. More over, he has not merely a touch of that nature which makes a whole audience kin, but both hands (one Cockney, the other kosher) full. If ever chill ...

... By Horace Horsnell Panama Hattie (Piccadilly) LIKE ancient Gaul, this modern American hullabaloo is divided into three parts: music, spectacle, and comedy; and in that respect it is traditional. The placing of these three elements, however, is as follows: comedy (highly knockabout) first, Mr. Cole Porter's music second, spectacle a good wartime third. Such plot as there is gets in a word or ...

... By Horace Horsnell Lottie Dundass Vaudeville WAS Lottie Dundass mad? This question, which, as applied to Hamlet, has teased generations of amateur alienists, might have been answered in the confident affirma tive within five minutes of her first appearance. For while Hamlet was mad only nor'-nor'-west, Lottie boxed the compass good and hard. She was young and pretty, self-centred and a ...

... By Horace Horsnell My Sister Eileen (Savoy) THE English production of this prepos terous farce is funny enough to make one wish, somewhat ungratefully, that it had been wholly American. Then we should have known the worst. Not that it fails to tickle the lower ribs or provoke the ventral guffaw. But if its punches had been delivered by Broadway buffoons, every funny-bone in the theatre might ...

... By Horace Horsnell A Month in the Country (St. James's FEW plays can have had happier titles, or lent themselves more graciously to trans lation, than Turgenev's A Month in the Country. In these disjointed times, and among the mixed items in the theatre bill, this revival is refreshing. The country, of course, is Russia a hundred years ago, but its charm is universal and timeless, and its ...

... By Horace Horsnell What Every Woman Knoivs (Lyric) THIS revival of Barrie's long-neglected comedy refreshes controversy as to his merits, status, and chances of immortality. Was he a first-rate dramatist, and will his plays live? Such speculation in futures is a harmless game, and does at least exercise the player's prejudices. But it's a tricky business anticipating the verdict of posterity. ...

... TU By Horace Horsnell Mr. Bolfry (Westminster) Is there anything more truly entertaining in the theatre than good talk? Mr. Shaw has often persuaded us there is not, and Mr. James Bridie refreshes that opinion. His plays have not always been unreservedly enjoyed, but they have always been distinguished by first-rate dialogue. Mr. Bolfry, his latest comedy, is full of it. The talk is excellent, ...