Offerings of Cakes and Ale

Irish Jesuit Province

Offerings of Cakes and AleDandy Dick: A Farce by Arthur W. Pinero; To-day and Yesterday: A Comedy in Three Acts byW. W. HepenstallReview by: Gabriel FallonThe Irish Monthly, Vol. 68, No. 807 (Sep., 1940), pp. 501-505Published by: Irish Jesuit ProvinceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20514770 .

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501

Sitting at the Play.

Offerings of Cakes and Ale BY GABRIEL FALLON.

Dandy Dick: A Farce by Arthur W. Pinero (Longford Productions, 5th Dublin Season. Gate Theatre, July, 1940).

To-day and Yesterday: A Comedy in Three Acts, by W. V. Hepenstall (one of the Prizewinning Plays in the Abbey Theatre Competition); Abbey Theatre, July-August, 1940.

T was a merry and a meritorious thought which prompted Lord

Longford to conclude an interesting and successful season at

the Gate with a revival of Sir Arthur Pinero's )andy Dick.

Judging by the crowded houses, it did not go unrewarded. Dandy

Dick is excellent fun; and no doubt there is some truth in

Congreve's Way of the World contention that the great majority of men and women would rather be amused than instructed. However melancholy this reflection may be for some of the more

serioujsly-minded of our little theatre directors, the fact remains

that laughter holding both his sides does not come amiss with theatre audiences.

To the theatre-goers of to-dayVPinero is probably little more

than a name, and that despite the fact that Mr. St. John Ervine salutes his memory as the dramatist who " raised the English

theatre out of the gutter". At any rate, A. W. Pinero was

perhaps the most typical dramatist of the nineties. His farces, The Magistrate, The Scihoolmustress, and Dandy Dick, in which,

it is generally conceded, he gave a new and exceedingly bene ficent stimulus to English comedy' were all produced before



502 THE IRISH MONTHL Y

1887. He began life as an actor, a fact which is frequently obscured, but one which our aspiring dramatists would do well not to forget. By 1890 the influence of Ibsen on European drama was becoming effective. The English theatre, missing the poet in Ibsen coinpletely, seized upon the lion's share of his social and

dramatic iconoclasmn. Pinero turned from his comnedy to Paula

Tanquerays and Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmithis; the despondent sociologists had their jovless realistic day; and the geniuis of Mr.

Shaw began to whirl those wvord-stormls in which he dominated

the theatre of his timle. The possible re-birth of English comedy was forced to stand aside to make wvay for the virtuosity of the

new virtue. It was no time for cakes and ale. Nevertheless, Pinero's early works were significant and influential. The

brilliance of his dramatic dialogue alone is a lasting value, testified to by an exacting present-day audience's willing and immediate response. This revival was due and justified.

Dandy Dick was presented in the costumne of 1887, the year of

its first productioni. It is a pity that something more of the spirit

of the first presentation was not preserved. The opinion is more

than personal; it bears the prestige of a distinguished member of

the audience who saw the first touring production. As the

producer's note indicates, it is a theatrical fashion . . e . " to

burlesque plays which were in their own day enjoyed with perfect

seriousness " And it is conceivable that the audience would have enjoyed this play ever so muclh more had certain members of its

cast been restrained from attempted burlesque.

Fortunately the leading actors held their heads, with the result that there were at least half a dozen delightfuil performances. The

burden of the play was borne in excellent gravity by Hamlyn

Benson as the suave, portly, and sometimes distracted Dean of St. Marvells. A delightful portrayal, sufficiently restrained to allow every flash and atom of Pineroni-an wit and humour to reach



OFFERINGS OF CAKES AND A-LE 503

its intended place. Blake G'ifford's Sir rristan Mardon was

another first-class performance, and for Mr. Gifford a rem-iarkably self-effacing character study. Jean Anderson's Georgina Tidman, Nora O'Mahony's Ilanna Topping, and Cathleen Delany's Salome were all good performnances. MLichael Ripper's

Blore, in itself a very good performance and responsible for some

of the heartiest laughter in the play, lost muich by exaggerated gesture. Mauireen Halligan's Sheba, though conceived in the right vein, erred overmuch on the side of petulancy. Basil Lord's

effective Constable Toppiing was, more's the pity, effectively obscured by his flaming wig and beard, totally unnecessary appendages which earned himi little mxore than one first-and last -hearty lauigh, and los-t him a Nvhole world of first-class facial expression.

The Mr. 1)arbey of Patrick Carey and the Majaor Tarver of John Izon were so burlesqued that all the purposes of these parts

were defeated. As a result, author's and actors' art suffered heavily. The burlesque extended from a manner of speech frequently incoherent-to an exaggerated facial makeup, which, particularly in Mr. Darbey's case, can only be described as being tof the undergraduate charade variety. No doubt these presenta

tions were offered in this manner writh the best intentions in the world, and the producer no less than the actors nmust share respon sibility for their not being in accordance with the spirit of the programme note. The " innocent merriment " of Pinero's work

speaks for itself, without any needed protestations on the part of

the actor. For all that, J)andy Dick was a timely and thoroughly enjoy

able revival, and suggests that further delving into the pre

Tranqueray theatre might produce equally enjoyable results. p * h *

S;urefLy Melpomene must have shed' a tear and Thalia wrinked



504 THE IRISH MONTHLY

outrageously when, with the Gaiety staging a season of Engl,sh comedy (of which Charley's Aunt was not the least acceptable offering), and the Gate drawing crowded houses to Dandy Dick, our respected Abbey decided to stage its prize-winning three-act comedy, and finding it to the public liking, surprisingly set it on a

three weeks' run. Much was said around Mr. Hepenstall's piece concerning the

subject of entertainment. The author himself, on being called

before his audience, declared that in To-day and Yesterday he had eimply purposed to entertain. And in this, indeed, he had, for a first effort, succeeded xvell and truly. Yet some of us were not a

little shocked. Was it, I wonder, at the aspect of our potent,

grave, and reverend theatre condescending to crown a work having nothing more in its constitution than the light-hearted

materials of a couple of hours' entertainment? Or is it because we

are so steadfast to the doctrine of the more difficult pleasure being

the nobler pleasure that we decline to subscribe to the broader belief that a little entertainment now and then is relished by even the most intellectually arrogant of theatre-goers?

Whatever the answers to these questions, it must be put on record that large and representative Abbey audiences thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Hepenstall's ideas of entertainment. A delightfully far-fetched story, the sketchiest of characterisations, slick and snmooth running dialogue, liberally interspersed with cracks old and new, wise and otherwise; these with a first-class Abbey east fetched latughter from the audienice at a rate of at least two laughs a minute. Good, clean, wholesome laughter, rather old-fashioned of couirse, and out-of-date. 'What matter that Mr. Hlepenstall sometimes won it with shop-worn and second-hand materials. It was well worth the winning, particularly in these anything but laughter-provoking times.

Having set his course in the first act of To-Day and Yesterday



OFFERINGS OF CAKES AND ALE 505

and done so with a sense of characterisation which leads one to expect deeper things, Mr. Hepenstall's construction begins to flag. And by the middle of Act II his invention is obviously dragging him like a sheet anchor. Act III finds him so pre occupied with the tying-up of his story that the thinness which fell upon his work in the second act has spread like a blight upon his third. As his piece progresses it loses in such quiality and quantity of its kind that one deems it a pity that Mr. Ilepenstall did not wrestle with it and wrestle with it again until he had shaken more reasonable proportions into it.

The play was well cast and brought forth some of the best work of old and new Abbey players. Positions and movement through out were far from satisfactory and overmuch use was made of that, too, too, accommodating stool for two. There was some

wholly unnecessary spot-lighting from a concealed bridge which tended to hinder rather than to help the action.

Outstanding in a large cast were Kathleen Murphy, Eileen Crowe, Michael J. Dolan, F. J. McCormick, W. O'Gorman, Ria Mooney and Denis O'Dea. These seasoned players performed their allotted tasks without a hitch, and supplied delightful and amusing characterisations. The work of their juniors was uniformly excellent and well uip to the first-line level. Sheila

Manahan, Ginette Waddell, Cecil Ford, P. H. Considine, Joan Plunkett, and James Duinne deserve the highest praise. Each presented an entirely individual and well-conceived characterisa tion. Seldom has there been such a uniformity of first-class acting in one cast.

If this crowning of entertainment per se may be taken as an indication of a new occasional experiment on the Abbey's part, then it does seem as if the experimenters are justified. There are

dangers, of course, but of tlhese the Abbey management is, no

doubt9, only too well aware.



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