THEATRE
WHAT does a woman do when her husband Is away in the Arctic for ten years without giving any sign of life? Of course, she makes other arrangements and it is therefore very inconvenient when, just as she is on the point of making the whole thing legal, the explorer turns up complete with a stock of doubtful arctic reminiscences and a ginger beard. On this basic joke the new farce at the Cambridge depends and Bernard Braden and Eleanor Summerfield keep itgoing quite effectively for two acts. After that it flags. However, the first two acts are fairly amusing —especially the enactment of an Eskimo orgy in the second—and Mr. Braden gives a convincing interpretation of a man who has heard the call of the frozen north, while remaining all too obviously unfrostbitten
himself. As usual with this type of play the author has lacked the courage of his con- victions. If he had maintained it on the level of pure farce, it would have been something to take a .girl to after a good dinner. As it is, the third act falls into mawkish sentiment and destroys the good work put in earlier by Mr. Braden and his supporters.
ANTHONY HARTLEY
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