The Finborough's rediscoveries of once-popular, now forgotten works by famous authors have previously included the first time I saw J.M. Barrie's
Quality Street, and now many years later another writer whose early plays were overlooked once he became better known as a children's author takes to the same stage: A. A. Milne is now remembered for creating Winnie-the-Pooh, but in 1921 his play
The Truth About Blayds was getting compliments from the likes of Dorothy Parker. It's not been seen on the London stage since, but David Gilmore's production reveals it as, if not quite a lost classic, at least worth a look more than once a century. Oliver Blayds (William Gaunt) is the last of the great Victorian poets, crossing paths with Tennyson and Browning, and compared favourably to Wordsworth.
