THE THEATRE.
"THE MAN OF DESTINY."
THE interesting revival of The Man of Destiny at the Everyman Theatre at Hampstead showed that for once Mr. Shaw was underestimating his own work when he said of this play in the introduction to Pleasant Plays that it " is hardly more than a bravura piece to display the virtuosity of the two performers." On the contrary, the play is a first and a very long step on the way to St. Joan. From the typical and illuminating conversa- tion between the Innkeeper of Tavazzano and the young Napoleon at the opening to the final conversation between Napoleon and the lady who stole the despatches at the close the action moves with an easy directness, almost a slickness, which Sardou and all the mechanical school attempted fruit- lessly to attain. Not only so, but the action flows directly out of the characters, so that every incident, while carrying the plot forward, adds to our knowledge of the dramatis personae. Moreover, every character, while in its detail exploding some conventional belief, is consistent and alive. Mr. Shaw from the beginning was able to fuse an idea and a personality, so that he had always at his hand the eternal conflict between opposed and genuine beliefs and emotions which is the foundation of all drama. An inspired critic in 1898 (but there are no inspired critics !) might have foretold that the playwright who could produce thus much with four characters and in severe obedience to all the Three Dramatic Unities would and must in the fullness of time and on a larger stage attain in St. Joan a point not reached in England since Shakespeare.
The presentation of the play at Hampstead was competent and interesting. Mr. Rains as Napoleon was perhaps a little on the quiet side, and was not altogether part-perfect. On the other hand, if one had not remembered Miss Irene Van- brugh's matchless presentation of The Lady at the Court, one would have sworn that it was impossible to better the per- formance of Miss de Casalis, while both Mr. Mather and Mr. Seagram as the Innkeeper and the Lieutenant left nothing to be desired.
. The play. was .preceded by a stupid topical charade called Augustus does His Bit. I guess that Mr. Shaw commits perversities of this kind to avoid the possibility of canonization during his lifetime. He remains human. by virtue of these apses, and so escapes the loveliness of St.Joan.
HUMBERT WOLFE.
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