... Heartbreak House (Cambridge) By Horace Horsnell THIS loquacious play may not be Shaw's masterpiece, but it has magnificent pass ages. It is described as a fantasy in the Russian manner on English themes. That description serves; though it might be even more aptly described as a symposium in the Peacock manner on Shavian themes. Its form, of course, is much less rigid than Peacock's, its ...

... By Horace Horsnell A Little Bit of Fluff (Ambassadors) A THOROUGH farce, once in a way, does no one any harm. It clears the mind of cant, and refreshes one's sense of humour. That is if it rollicks, and does not dabble in mere persiflage. Its speech should be free, its action lively. The slapstick need not be spared. The characters may be larger than life, but their misfortunes, though dire, ...

... By Horace Horsnell The Moon is Down (Whitehall) COMPARISONS between the various war plays now running in the West End need not be odious. Each justifies pro duction on other than merely topical grounds. They differ widely in theme and treatment, and their appeal is due less to their concern with war than to the personal fortunes of their characters. This is as it should be; for they are plays, ...

... MYSELF AT THE PICTURES Adult and Juvenile By James Agate OUT of the blue or the cellars of Studio One, which amounts to very much the same thing, comes Derrière la Facade, a small French film so good that it takes all Hollywood's monster productions between finger and thumb and puts them into a sack, which it then deposits in the Atlantic half-way between Hollywood and the port of entry into ...

... MYSELF AT THE PICTURES Ring me up, Wait! By James Agate APROPOS of the balloon Dr. Johnson said: We now know a method of mounting into the air, and, I think, are not likely to know more. I had now rather find a medicine that can ease an asthma. We now know a great deal about aeroplanes and are likely, I think, to know a great deal more. All the same, I had rather now find a method of ...

... I By Horace Horsnell Sleeping Out (Piccadilly) How easy it is, when listening to the opening phases of the average farce, to forget What dire offence from amorous causes springs What mighty contests rise from trivial things The stark preliminaries are so devoid ol verbal graces and plausibility that one can hardly believe one's ears, still less that, from such perfunctory squalls, gales of ...

... By Horace Horsnell Cinderella (Stoll) PANTOMIME, like beer, is a wonderful leveller. It removes inhibitions from both sides of the footlights, and absolves actors and audience alike from taking themselves too seriously. It has rhyme, but little reason, and is no respecter of persons. Kings are of less account than commoners; licence is the order of the state. The fabric of the story it tells ...

... TU By Horace Horsnell They Came to a City Globe J THE planning of Utopias must be great fun. It has engaged the dreams and ambitions of all sorts and conditions of men from Plato to Hitler. Mr. Priestley, the latest of such cosmic visionaries, is in dis tinguished, if somewhat mixed, company. No one would suspect him of regarding his fellow-men as pawns. The champion of Good Companionship is ...

... TU By Horace Horsnell Old Chelsea (Prince's) I OLD times, sentimentally approached, are apt to display ye olde veneer; and there are writers whose quality may be judged by their attitude to the past. This may be patronising, which is bad; snobbish, which is worse, or just plumb whimsical, which but it is late in the day to flog that poor lade, the musical-comedy libretto. Good ness knows ...

... By Horace Horsnell Halfway to Heaven (Princes) I AM not on very easy terms with the super natural. Professors of the black arts would regard me as an outsider. Even amateur fortune-tellers look at me askance, and palm ists snub, when I inquire sympathetically into the craft of the arts they practise. So that although I approached them with friendly curiosity and an open mind, perhaps I am not ...

... By Horace Horsnell ITar and Peace (Phainix) TOLSTOY'S War and Peace is a long story, epic in scope and quality. It has lately suffered a popular English boom. This was provoked by our general interest in Russia and by the fateful parallel between Napoleon's 1812, and the present Nazi campaigns. A radio adaptation of the book was recently broadcast; a film is projected, and a stage play was ...

... By Horace Horsnell Acacia Avenue (Vaudeville) SOMEDAY the happy breeds of Balham, Tooting, and the lands beyond the five- mile radius will rise in revolt, not against their conditions, but against flippant exposure on the stage. The tocsin will be sounded on Shooters Hill, the standard raised on Clapham Common, Wandsworth will embody its militia, Blackheath raise levies, and storm troops ...