Evening star., 1938-02-01

7
alash at the art of philandering than
"Once Is Enough" which opened last
marital love into the arms of the
hAndieSt male or female in the vicinity
seems destined hereafter to seem q
silly pastime to any one who sees the
play. 1t is impossible to laugh at the
idea as hard as one does in Once Is
Enough" and practice it thereafter
with the same old enchanted and con-
vincing dexterity.
Such unbridled enthusiasm for Miss
Claire's bright new comedy may sound
as If it were completely perfect theater
IN It's initial performance here. It was
not. Even the scintillating star re-
quired most Of an act, and one that
could be shortened or paced more
effectively. before she found herself
doing justice to herself and her play.
But even though these imperfections
shone always typical product Of the
combined genius of two such talented
creators Of sophisticated drama.
"Once Is Enough" artfully cast and
richly staged by Gilbert Miller, is
play that will appeal to all women
and to any man with drop of sport
ing blood in his veins. As intimated
above. it represents thorough, witty
and wise diagnosis Of the boredom
which causes husbands and wives to
leave home, each with some one else
The thoroughness, wit and wisdom
are represented in. the character Of
the Duchess Of Hampshire, played by
Miss Claire. In view of her past per-
formances as home-wrecker, it is lit
tie strange, but enormously pleasant.
to see her playing so perfectly the
part Of a perfect wife. The Duchess
Is a great lady, willy, artful, knowing,
loving, malicious; a woman ideally
equipped to face illicit romance and
completely debunk it. Her reward,
which somehow does not seem too law
tsh, Is the rescue of her husband and
the anguished humiliation of the other
woman.
A WOMAN endowed with such tai
ents naturally would have much
Of pointed, pungent and philosophic
dialogue at the tip of her tongue Mr..
Lonsdale has provided that abundantly
and the way Miss Claire envelopes and
makes his words her own leaves little
doubt Of the thoroughness of under
standing between playwright and play
er. (He can't fool us, he wrote the
play for herr
In giving Miss Claire chance to
take the natural man and the natural
woman apart before your very eyes,
the playwright has not surrounded
her with bunch of OATS. The OATS
and intelligent are about equally
divided and the exchanges between
them are happy things to hear and
see. Mr.. Lonsdale. indeed, seemed
slightly bewitched by them himself
IN the first act into which he allowed
to creep a few too many sweet and
bitter jests.
First among the more memorable
moments in that lovely drawing room
OF the Duchess home is that in which
she dissects her husbands supposedly
concealed romance. In the writing
"AAA pay AAe VA VAALo Ulllldu.
dering husbands are spared not
single lash and the Duke, poor devil,
comes out of it a quivering. discon-
certed man. The philandering other
woman, wife Of a man who is fairly
praying for a correspondent Gas who
wouldn't in such a case), gets hers in
the next act. Good as it is, it does
not seem quite the same savage dose
as that handed the Duke. who still
has complete and awful rout to come
at the final curtain when he returns,
q humble supplicant, to the old,
familiar boudoir. Miss Claire makes
the wife seem almost superhuman in
her discernment (and her ability to
make you laugh) when she picks out of
her husbands recriminatory speeches
those which are direct quotes from
me other woman. That's LIS" she
says. and the bedeviled Duke Just
wants to go away somewhere and die.
He does it again and she begins to
examine him on his real feeling
toward the sentimental swill he has
talked to Liz about the greatness, the
depth and cleanliness of their love
and their common admiration for the
beauty OF cathedrals. But the more
deadly it is for the Duke, and his kind
OF husband, the more fun it is for
every one else.
+ X X
'HE man who stands UP under the
raking fire of the wise and lovely
duchess is played, and we'll, by Hugh
Williams. To the right and left of
the central trio are the usual sophis-
ticates OF the Lonsdale menage,
worldly wise White Russian (Austin
1revor), who has way with cards
ano women, pleasantly decaying old
gossip (Rosalind Ivan), the husband
nopelul OF losing Liz as quickly as