Theater February 2017
Immoral acts
On Yours Unfaithfully at the Beckett Theatre and A Bronx Tale at the Longacre Theater.
Bertrand Russell is perhaps no better known for his theater criticism than Frank Rich is for his mathematical proofs, but nevertheless Russell did venture to share his thoughts, in The Observer, about Miles Malleson’s 1933 play Yours Unfaithfully (through February 18 at the Beckett Theatre at Theatre Row), which at that time had been published but not produced. “The subject is treated delightfully, with humor and kindliness and without any dogmatic conclusion,” Russell wrote of the play. “The characters behave as real people do behave, and not according to some convention of the theatre.” What Russell neglected to mention, however, is that the play appears to draw inspiration from the behavior of (among others) . . . Russell.
Malleson, sixteen years Russell’s junior and like the older man a...
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