Jean Anouilh’s The Rehearsal is at the same time both elegantly witty and cynically shallow, like most of the aristocratic characters in this Yvonne Arnaud revival from the pre-John Osborne era. Actually Anouilh should be a reviewer’s delight with his adroit use of theatre and philosophy, but the latter betrays the same superficial and jaundiced view of life as the characters portrayed. Carl Toms’ superb set resembles a hall of mirrors, at once raising the question of illusion and reality.  The period costumes worn throughout for the rehearsal of the inner play again pose a contrast - of time - but not for any apparent purpose or effect. Having said all that, it must be allowed that the script is at times extremely engaging, even if the lifestyle of the players is pure candy floss: people who “play their time away for sweet-Jesus's sake”. The one real person is Lalla Ward who complains that she “cannot glitter to advantage” yet with controlled incandescence conveys a deeper reality than the illusory lives of all the rest put together.

The cast revels in the fifties formalities of speech and manner.  Dinsdale Landen gets across dazzlingly the drunkard’s viewpoint of the comic/tragic paradox of life.  Peter Jeffrey imbues the Count with enough hidden emotion to suggest he realises what he has missed in life - a real relationship.  Kate O'Mara is the beautiful bitch who makes you feel she is almost in chsracter, if one didn't know her to the much nicer really!  There's that third dimension of actor; player in the inner play; and real person.  With all this English strength, Leslie Caron holds her own in staunch Gallic style and gestures away appealingly, even if her voice could be a bit stronger.  James Coombes is the wife's lover who "manages to make  sin more tedious than virtue", while Richard Caldicot has a cameo as the girl's godfather.  Gillian Lynne directs.