Mermaid Theatre, London

The cast was: Babsy, Sally Miles; Lottie, Clare Kinson; Hannah, Marjorie Laint; Jessie, Josephine Tewson; Emma, Gaynor Owen; Elder Daniels, Alan MacNaughtan; Blanco Posnet, Ronald Fraser; Strapper Kemp, Jeremy Spenser; Squinty, Roger Kemp; Feemy Evans, Jill Bennett; The Sheriff, Cal McCord; Foreman of the Jury, Frank Windsor; Nestor, Daniel Thorndike; Waggoner Jo, Peter Prowse; Woman, Anna Burden (The Stage, 5 October 1961). ‘The warming glow of true religion shines through the wit and wisdom of “Androcles and the Lion” and “The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet”, which were revived at the Mermaid on Tuesday last ... The melodrama of “Blanco Posnet” calls for rich, forthright bravura acting, which it does not get here, although as Blanco, Ronald Fraser on the opening night gave an intelligent, lively performance which one feels will gain in confidence and attack. The contrast of the muddled thinking, prejudice and absurdity of the people in “Blanco Posnet” revealed as the hero is tried for horse-stealing in a little town in the wild West, becomes, in turn, the more horrifying or starkly funny, as God is called upon as witness to the base goings-on in this rotten world’ (The Stage, 5 October 1961). Perhaps the main interest of the evening was to watch the rarely-performed “Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet.” This presentation persistently reminded me of “Oklahoma” without music and dancing. Unfortunately, what should be the climax of the play – the conversion of Feemy, the town’s lady of easy virtue - did not quite come off. This, perhaps, is the fault of the playwright, rather than that of Jill Bennett, who pays the part' (Newcastle Journal, 7 October 1961). '[Blanco Posnet] is, of course, a play of abounding vitality: if it falters at the moment when we realise that Shaw is trying to pack too much into too little, it can stand up gamely to the effects of an explosion of Shavian rhetoric in a confined space. There is no need to over-value it; but, in the theatre, it makes a very good prelude to “Androcles"' (Illustrated London News, 14 October 1961). ‘Revivals of some of [Shaw's plays] show dreadful signs of dating. Among these are “The Shewing up of Blanco Posnet” and “Androcles and the Lion" ... “Blanco Posnet” was at one time banned by the Lord Chamberlain, although it is difficult now to see why. It treats of the pharisee and magdalen theme in a Wild West setting. Unfortunately for Shaw this territory has long since been taken over by the films and cannot be effectively recovered for the stage’ (Middlesex County Times, 14 October 1961). ‘Bernard Shaw’s favourite joke was that a man will never be happy practising virtues that run counter to his own nature ... it is the dramatic propellent of the two religious pieces that are revived - not as stylishly as they might be but still very entertainingly - at the Mermaid. In The Shewing-up Of Blanco Posnet a horse thief in the Wild West is shown despising himself horribly for having experienced what can be called a religious conversion ... Mr. Frank Dunlop’s handling of Posnet is a little more rough and ready than his adroit handling of the more obviously difficult problems of Androcles yet I find myself more firmly held by the realistic religious drama than by the religious pantomime, perhaps because I had never seen it before' (The Tatler, 18 October 1961).