The belated London premiere of a long-forgotten early play by the great JB Priestley? That he himself semi-disowned? Well, it must be AMAZING, as good as ‘An Inspector Calls’. Oh, hold on...
‘The Roundabout’, which Priestley wrote and abandoned before his 1932 breakthrough ‘Dangerous Corner’ (though it was picked up by a few regional repertory theatres), is obviously not a great play or else we’d have seen it before. In fact it’s a fairly toothless comedy of manners that is nonetheless of note for its sensitivity to the epochal shifts happening in the society of the time... albeit in the most tame way possible.
Lord Kettlewell, a twinkly-eyed aristo with a mildly boho streak, is startled when his estranged daughter Pamela returns from the USSR, unconvincingly claiming to be a communist (Priestley, who would later premiere his devastating masterpiece ‘An Inspector Calls’ in Moscow, here appears to frame communism as simply a form of childish tantrum against the hierarchical establishment). It’s the type of old fashioned play where the big end of act cliffhanger is Pamela - who had previously been clad in gender neutral peasant’s garb - changing into a nice frock and putting on some lippy.
Still it is an *interesting* snapshot of a slowly changing world. And it boasts a tremendous performance from Bessie Carter as Pamela: tomboyish, angular, ironically flirty and somewhat physically imposing, she’s very funny and radiates charisma. Daughter to Imelda Staunton and Jim Carter, one suspects her future success would be fairly assured anyway, but on this evidence she thoroughly deserves everything coming her way.