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James K. Baxter Complete Prose Volume 2

Two Comedies

Two Comedies

Mr Marcus’s play is essentially satirical; it explores in detail the relation and contrast between private and public life in the age of Organisation Man – or, more exactly, Organisation Woman. In private life June Buckridge is the dominant member of a Lesbian partnership, a flamboyant, eccentric, middle-aged woman; in public life she is ‘Sister George’, the heroic District Nurse in a long-running radio serial. The serial is losing popularity, and Broadcasting House decides that Sister George will have to die. Mrs Mercy Croft, an official of Broadcasting House, is the appointed executioner – in the event, she not only ‘executes’ Sister George, but also takes permanent charge of ‘Childie’, June Buckridge’s girlfriend. With mediocre handling this explosive theme could have resulted in a play that depended for its effect on sensationalism; but this is hardly the case. Mr Marcus has written a full-blooded uproarious comedy which at the same time includes a compassionate and knowledgeable view of the problems of Lesbians.

The Cresta Run is a thinner job, a Dadaist comedy concerning the stupidities of espionage. A man and his wife are gradually recruited to act as agents of the British Secret Service – their difficulties are without exception absurd – yet I hardly feel that Mr Simpson has made a contribution to the Theatre of the Absurd, to stand alongside Beckett or Ionesco. The play might well be worth seeing if it were handled by a good professional cast, but on paper it has the appearance of a very long-winded joke.

1967 (422)