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OUR BETTERS by W. Somerset Maugham
Venue: Richmond 1982
Directed by Richard Digby Day


Cast
Phyllis Calvert
Barbara Jefford
Muriel Barker
Bill Buffery
Lois Butlin
Julian Jones
Jonathan Kiley
Peter Laird
Richard Mayes
Michael Siberry

Review

Up to now, Nottingham Playhouse has never got around to Somerset Maugham. This strange gap is now filled with Our Betters. Richard Digby Day’s production alleviates the scene-setting emptiness of the opening by a brief first act, followed by a second which takes up two-thirds of the play and contains the meat.

Set in 1919, it examines the phenomenon of the American heiresses who swept across the Atlantic after the war securing themselves titles by knocking over the English aristocracy like ninepins. Lady Grayston is their elegant doyen, busily applying herself to the hub of Society. She and her cronies are a shallow and brittle lot, and Maugham draws much cynical fun at their expense. Against her better judgement, Pearl Grayston dallies in the Japanese tea-house of her Suffolk mansion with her best friend’s gigolo. They are discovered, and the strength of the play lies in the expert escape-act she performs. It is a feat which needs an actress with exactly the right grasp. Barbara Jefford has it, lying fairly dormant at the beginning until the time comes for her to demonstrate the qualities of toughness, determination and clear-sightedness which have got her to the top. As the Duchess, Phyllis Calvert capers in her absurdly overblown fashion creations, holding back the pathetic insecurity of the woman until, shattered but pleading, she buys back her boyfriend.

The shades of this charmed circle are adroitly portrayed by Peter Lairds as the ultra-snob American, Richard Mayes as the sugar-daddy, Muriel Barker as the resigned princess and Philip Bowman as Lord Bleane. Bill Buffery’s brash American and Jonathan Kiley’s double role of manservant and dancing master round off a production clothed by Trevor Pitt’s magnificent period designs.