David Lewis Theatre, Liverpool

‘Diary for Next Week … Tuesday and Wednesday Unity Players in “The Unattainable,” by Somerset Maugham, and “The Shewing Up Of Blanco Posnet,” by Bernard Shaw, David Lewis Theatre’ (Liverpool Echo, Saturday 2 April 1932). ‘The Unity Players, who have shown a consistent improvement in their work since their beginning in 1928, have not, to my viewing, done anything better than this production of Shaw’s “sermon in crude melodrama.” It was a virile piece of work notable for its team-work and having in Denis Forsyth’s Blanco and Ernest N. Ward’s Sheriff, two outstanding personations. Mr. Ward was ideally cast, while Mr. Forsyth’s study was most forceful, and though lacking in subtlety at one or two emotional points, its genuine spirit made it very enjoyable. Ann Pearson as Feemy did not express all the blatancy of the part. but she showed a real capacity for acting. Lewis Donne’s Elder Daniels was well-studied, but over-serious. A little more melodrama and a little less oratory seemed to be needed here. Victor Kneen was a noticeable figure as the foreman of the jury on which a dozen young men from the Liverpool Collegiate School served with good effect; while Helen Miller made an excellent entry as the mystery woman in the case. A word of praise is due also to the “chorus” of women, whose opening scene, particularly, was spiritedly done’ (Liverpool Echo, 9 April 1932).