THE THEATRE
" The Springtime of Others." By Jean-Jacques Bernard, translated by J. Leslie Frith, at the Arts Theatre Club.
THIS play in three acts by one of the best known of French pre-war dramatists was first produced in 1924 in France, and was also pro- duced some years ago in London in Mr. Frith's admirable transla- tion. Bernard is an exquisite writer, far superior to the more melo- dramatic type of French playwright and in his tolerant truthfulness to life and unobtrusive dramatic skill he is slightly reminiscent of Tchekhov. It is the story of a mother who falls in love with the husband of her young daughter, and it is evidence of Bernard's extra- ordinary skill that the play never departs from the strictest fidelity to human nature and is without a single dull moment. The husband is never allowed to know that his mother-in-law is in love with him, and the daughter only discovers it at the last moment in the play. which culminates in a most touching scene of farewell between mother and daughter in which our sympathies are equally with both of them. That there should not be one unsympathetic character in the pray is a tour-de-force of the dramatist's ; but it is a measure of the acting on this occasion that there was no transgression by Jeremy Hawk's performance as the husband or by Isolde Denham's as the daughter. It is on the mother that the play, however, chiefly depends, and here Mary Hinton's performance as Clarisse was faultless.
Bernard's play was preceded by Tchekhov's The Swan Song, which suffered sadly from Mr. Alec Clunes's performance in the role of the comedian of sixty-eight. Firstly, Mr. Clunes made the comedian far too old—he doddered and dithered more like a man of eighty-eight. Secondly, every tone and gesture was artificial and unconvincing. As a " Song " it was completely out of tune. It is well known that swans have harsh voices, but there is this one occasion (certainly not forgotten by Tchekhov) when their song is supposed to be inexpressively moving. Mr. Clunes did not forget it. but we watched his struggles to make us remember it without the
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