Irving Theatre, London

‘On May 14 the East and West Drama Society presented two plays by Rabindranath Tagore’ [“Sacrifice” and “The Post Office”, produced by Tarun Roy, at the Irving Theatre]. The cast of “Sacrifice” was Queen … Agnes Bernelle Raghupati … Hubert Cross Javsingh … Michael Seavers Aparna … Diana Fulker King … Terence O’Regan Prince … Edward David General Patrick Benson Chandpal … Preetam Singh Dhruva … Bogdan Ghoshal ‘Tagore is a name that has earned world-wide respect, and one can only assume that these plays are given poetic life when performed with formal style in the original language. In the present production they are decidedly tedious. “Sacrifice" has plot and situations strong enough and emotions potentially entangled enough for Webster, but, perhaps to some extent due to translation and condensation, the characters are flat and have no emotional appeal. Without character there is no tension; the short scenes do not build to climaxes, neither does the play as a whole. Its direct, story-telling method makes clear its moral and the author’s humanity, but something so unsophisticated needs at least charm to be attractive, and of that there is none’ (The Stage, 22 May 1952). ‘The two Tagore plays which opened the Irving series of plays representative of European countries, the Middle East, and the Orient, are being presented as authentically as possible. “In this respect,” Mr. Roy said, “European audiences may consider they are overacted, and from your standards they are. But I think it is essential to present and act them as would be done in India, or with the least possible modification. Otherwise they would not be truly representative. Their authentic style and atmosphere must be kept, whatever else may have to be done towards adaptation to fit necessities of the English stage. The Western influence in our theatre is so strong that those who really wish to understand and appreciate it should not have too much difficulty”’ (The Stage, 22 May 1952). [The St. Martin's Theatre was designed by the well known Theatre Architect W. G. R. Sprague and opened on the 23rd of November 1916 ... The proposed name for the Theatre, when it was first discussed in 1912, was to be the Irving Theatre, after Henry Irving, but the name was not used in the end and the Theatre actually opened as the St. Martin's Theatre. The Irving Theatre name was eventually used for a small review Theatre nearby in Leicester Square which opened in 1951 as an art gallery by day and a Theatre at night, closing in 1964' (http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/StMartinsTheatre.htm).]