ABSTRACT
On Tuesday the 21st the first performance of Mr. T.S. Eliot’s new verse play, ‘The Family Reunion,’ was given at The Westminster Theatre. It is a drama of the inner life. The character contrast which runs through it – the test applied to all the characters in the play – is whether he or she attempts to live on the surface and pretends (that is all that is possible) to ignore the spiritual destiny of man, or accepts a predicament which is essentially tragic. If I had grasped this while in the theatre instead of only when on my return home, I should not have been so perplexed by the play. The characters who wilfully shut their eyes and seek to enjoy sham happiness by living superficially are the mother (Lady Monchensey, excellently acted by Miss Helen Haye), two of her sisters, her two brothers-in-law and Dr. Warburton; those who face the obligations and pain of living in reality in various degrees are Lady Monchensey’s third sister, Agatha (amazingly well interpreted by Miss Catharine Lacey), her ‘young cousin, Mary, and, of course, her eldest son, Harry (Michael Redgrave: surprisingly good in a most difficult part) whose conscience is, so to speak, the seat of the drama.
