Evening star., 1952-10-28


theater's most bewitching voice, M
that life, even without hope, is
worth living. It goes without say
ing that this is a timely message.
If it is not a notably cheerful one
as messages go it could not ask a
more attractive messenger, as last
nights capacity audience testified.
Miss Sullavan's long holiday
from the theater has in noWise
diminished the grace and quiet
eloquence with which she clothes
her every task on the stage. AS
tasks go, this is one of her most
difficult. Mr.. Rattigan quite ma
turally feels intensely what he has
to say about a species living be-
tween the devil and the deep blue
sea. He has not made his players
work any the easier for straining
to make the play say very big
thing in terms of some average
size human creatures.
The disparity between the two,
indeed, is the trouble with "The
Deep Blue Sea-" No joy in the sight
of Miss SULLIVAN again is quite
able to conceal it.
X y 4
The setting in which Mr.. Rat
tigan sets up his thesis that life
Is its own Justification, and that
its only defeat is ignoble death,
is a middle class fiat in north
west London.
Here, Miss SULLIVAN is living in
desperately uneasy sin with for
mer Raj hero for whom she
deserted an immaculate, patrician
judge. AS the play opens, she has
just attempted suicide. The i'm
mediate inspiration for her act,
it develops when she RECEIVERS, is
that her restless lover forgot her
birthday the day before.
Actually. the cause lies far
deeper. in her unacknowledged
awareness that neither the man
she left nor the one she went
away with can match the in
tensity of her own love. She knows
she is betrayed by her deepest
sense OF life's design.
1t is not the fashion of plays
lately to start with this much
excitement. It is the misfortune
of The Deep Blue Sea- that,
starting so high. it almost i'm
mediately descends to a more
commonplace level.
The reasons for Miss Sullavan's
act must be explained. They turn
out to be those of so many cases
of wayward love, of the lovely,
high-minded, gifted and seemingly
secure woman being fatally at
tracted to a dashing male.
Miss Sullavan's "other man is
not completely standard. He is
not tall. dark and handsome. He
is rather average looking, but he
is far more effervescent than her
jurist husband and he wears the
wistful aura of a wartime airman
lost among the groundlings of the
postwar period
Moreover. if in her eyes he was
q ''ruddy Romeo" he has the wit
and spirit to deny any such con-
ception of himself. He enjoys be- |
ing attractive to women but he
sees no justification for their dis
tortion Of that quality into some
thing finer. Their disposition to
commit suicide is outrageously un-
sporting in his eyes. It embar-
raSses a man at subsequent in
quests and makes him a pariah
In all the pubs where he formerly
felt at home.
**
The fiat where Miss SULLIVAN
lives her hollow, helpleSsly loyal
life with her harrassed lover. is
occupied by a number of other
types. Two of these are a young
husband and wife. Another is a
landlady who is inadvisedly trust
ed with everybody's secrets. Still
another, and most important of
all, is an unfrocked physician now
working for a race track Rookie. |
1t is the latter who, when the
others, including Miss Sullavan's
judicial husband. have failed, /
gives her the courageous phil
osophy that saves her.
"The Deep Blue Sea" is a serious
play but Mr.. Rattigan is con-
cerned that it shall not be too
serious. He seeks to temper it
with lightness in numerous scenes
in each of the three acts. Many
of these are genuinely amusing
but the authors cleverness is not
sufficient to make them all fit
easily into the movement of the
play.
The latter do not make it any
easier for Miss SULLIVAN to create
an effective portrait of dis
traught lady, cruelty betrayed by
her own great gift of love. She
succeeds. nevertheless, better than
any actress one can think of in
picturing the hollowness of a good
Woman's best dreams.
Firth Banbury's direction is
rewarded with crisp and mean
ingful portrait of the deserted
Judge by Alan Webb. and another