STAGE AND SCREEN The Theatre
Miss Ruth Draper. At the Haymarket Theatre ANOTHER performance of Miss Draper's serves to confirm a fear one had already held, that the 'first occasion on which one sees and hears her (to say ' sees' alone would be to do her an injustice) is the most enjoyable. Technically, she is as accomplished as ever ; and there is no one living who could attempt what she does with a tenth of her success. The objection is not to her methods, but to the way in which she limits them. Her satire, however cleverly it is executed, is not infrequently a shade obvious in conception ; less astute wits than Miss Draper's have tilted successfully at the depressing types of humanity which are her targets. There is considerable variety in those types, but the same tone of detached acidity nearly always informs her treat- ment of them. When she abandons satire, her portraits become edged with the gilt of pathos. She does not attempt tragedy. And in not attempting it she abstains, in my opinion, from the only form in which her talents could survive unlimited repetition. It is only fair to add that this is a view perhaps confined to the present writer. From the reminiscences that one overheard mingled with the applause at familiar evocations on Monday night, one knows that it is not the general opinion.
DEREK VERSCHOYLE.
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