Continuing my current theatrical theme of obscurities from big names, J.B.
Priestley's third play
The Roundabout is largely forgotten, but anything by
the author of
An Inspector Calls is usually worth taking a bet on. Actually,
if the publicity had reminded me at the time I booked, as it does now, that
Priestley was
also the author of
When We Are Married I might not have
bothered, and we're very much in the realm of the latter play here, in a dusty
comedy of manners. Fifteen years before
An Inspector Calls, class
inequalities are already a subject Priestley looks into, but Communism is more of a
punchline than a matter for discussion here. Lord Kettlewell's (Brian Protheroe)
finances are in freefall, but it hasn't stopped him from sticking to his usual
routine of having guests - both invited and uninvited - at his country pile for the
weekend. Among them is his mistress Hilda (Carol Starks,) as he's been separated
from his wife for the last decade.
