Patterns of Unease
.11112. FAMILY REUNION. By T. S. Eliot. (Phccn lyis play is sometimes said to be T. S. Flint's best. Certainly it is one of his most interesting attempts. While suffering from crave technical faults, which he himself was 111e first to' point out, it marks the moment at Which his verse became adapted to drama. In 'Pite of the clumsy device of the chorus of uncles and aunts, we hardly notice that the the is a stylisation until the last moment and 'fie practically unactable ritual of the birthday sake. This is the first incursion into English "PPer-class life of the patterns of unease, Which Mr. Eliot and, before him, W. H. Auden choose to find beneath the smooth surface of gacious living. In this play there is Freud and there is original sin, and I am not quite sure
the it relics on most. Also it is easy to see ,n
prototypes of many things in Mr. Eliot's "t, °re recent work—the father obsession, for `It`tniPle, and the hero bulldozed into sanctity, ;,ehangc pointed out by Downing the valet, confidential incidentally, is the original study for the „°lIfidential clerk in the later play of that 'tattle. Peter Brook produced this fall of the house Atreus very well with the maximum of Licioln and a cunning use of lights. He was, of
course, fortunate in his cast. Sybil Thorndike and Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies fitted their respective parts like gloves, while Olive Gregg was muted and appealing as Mary. All these actresses knew how to speak Mr. Eliot's verse, but this, unfortunately, was not entirely true of Paul Scofield. Mr. Scofield is a powerful actor, but he never quite brings it off, and I fancy this is due to his monotonous delivery of his lines. He invariably speaks as though he were acting in a romantic play, and there is no English romantic theatre worth mentioning. Perhaps he should play Ray Bias. The rest of the cast do very well indeed; the uncles and aunts even manage their choruses without seeming too self-conscious, I imagine Mr. Eliot allowed for a certain comical effect produced on the audience by these, but, after seeing the play for the first time, I do not think he allowed for nearly enough.
.ANTONY HARTLEY
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