“A TRUE history that never happened” is how the author (George Bernard Shaw) described this comedy.
The year is 1680, in the library of Isaac Newton’s house in Cambridge, and the action illustrates what might have happened if Charles II had called upon the philospoher Newton, at the same time as he was visited by George Fox, the founder of the Society of Friends.
The somewhat harmonious clash of three such personalities, for Shaw depicts the Merry Monarch as a dominant personality, an ageing, scholarly, and witty prince, rather than the libertine, playboyish character usually associated with Charles II, is offset by the interruptions of three of Charles’s mistresses.
The play is very witty, it contains the usual sparkling passages, mixed up with sound, logical discourse, and for the period, some very advanced thought.
As is usual in many of Shaw’s plays, stage movement is restricted by some of the longer passages, and in this production I don’t think the producer took full advantage when the opportunity arose, to move his characters sufficiently. More could have been made of the incidents when George Fox, upon hearing the church bell, attempts to rush out to stop it, and is himself prevented from leaving by Charles, or when Newton attempts to throw the Duke of York out through the window.
Mr. Philip Wright was well cast as Charles II and gave a balanced performance. He was best in the last act when he did portray a really serious “Merry Monarch.”
A rather starchy Newton was played by Mr. Buxton Forsyth; this gentleman, I believe, played the part of Crocker Harris in the recent production of “The Browning Version,” and Crocker Harris showed through the chinks in Newton’s philosophy.
The rest of the cast played quite well. Mr. Rowland Perry was just a bit pompous in the role of Fox, more of the proud prelate than the evangelistical divine about him. Miss Jane Wilson was a saucy, hip swinging Nell Gwynne, who occasionally forgot her dialect, as did some of the others! The broken English accents could have been improved a lot.
Frederick H. Spencer was not nearly nasal enough for a Dutchman, and June Price was a precocious Louise.
Altogether a very entertaining performance to an almost unresponsive audience.
R.K.
Leeds Weekly Citizen