When I wrote about this play's imminent revival at the Finborough Theatre a few weeks ago I hoped for the best but wasn't sure what to expect. Would there be the appropriate balance of seriousness and comedy in the playing? Would contemporary theatregoers take this example of Milne's adult work to their hearts as readily as audiences of a hundred years ago, weaned on his pieces in Punch magazine?
The answers, based on the performance I saw last night, would appear to be Yes and, moreover, Yes. It is well cast, with William Gaunt as the Great Man particularly memorable during his time onstage in the first act. The production serves Milne very well, and time seemed to whizz by, which is always a good sign.
Gaunt's performance made it easier to understand why, as discussed in that earlier post, some critics - and even Milne's idol and inspiration, J.M. Barrie - wished that he had kept Blayds alive for the duration. But, as he made clear over six pages of his autobiography, that's not the play he was interested in writing: his intention was to explore the question "What happens in a religious community when its god is discovered to be a false god?" so the discredited hero hanging around would have been an irrelevance.
