Book Review: Theatre (1937) by W. Somerset Maugham #1937Club

Entertaining and fun, some parts sparkling (and surprisingly frank for the time it was written), W. Somerset Maugham’s 1937 novel Theatre, set in a world that was very much his own (he was as much a playwright as a novelist, especially in the earlier part of his career, and a successful one at that), and focusing among others on the theatre of course, but also on love, anguish and heartbreak, family, acting and reality, and much else both manages to remain light-hearted all through and gets the reader to root for, even sympathise with its heroine, despite her being quite self-absorbed, dramatic and also rather selfish.

Our story centres around Julia Lambert, who at 46 is as glamourous as she always has been and rules the stage—at least in the kind of roles that she is suited to playing, carrying off even plays not particularly well written, with a string of admirers and living a wealthy, comfortable life. She is married to Michael Gosselyn, himself an actor known more for his looks than his craft but successful at managing their theatre and even direction and they have a son Roger, completing their picture perfect (well, almost) family. We learn how Julia and separately Michael started their careers and worked their way to (the war intervening) acquiring and running their own theatre, Julia’s craft being perfected along the way and also how Julia fell head-over-heels for the (then) breathtakingly handsome Michael who was not quite as enthusiastic even when he seemed to return her affections. Her passion eventually cools (a sudden ‘snapping out’ moment) and from then on, her craft and career alone are her focus.

Now at a time when everything is ‘settled’ and comfortable, Julia is basking in her glory, her world is shaken up when into their life comes the young accountant Tom Fennell, deputed by his firm to handle the theatre’s accounts. Tom clearly admires her and what starts out as simply inviting him to share a meal with herself and Michael (what Julia rather condescendingly thinks, must surely be ‘the most wonderful moment in his whole life’) soon turns into an affair, Julia finding herself feeling perhaps as intensely about Tom as she once did for Michael. Yet, while Tom is happy to carry on the relationship and with it, reap all the advantages that come his way—from introductions to the well-heeled to Julia’s financial support and generous gifts—not only is he callous and hurtful (also certainly manipulative—although I couldn’t entirely make up my mind about how far this attribute defined him), he isn’t beyond ‘using’ Julia to further the ‘career’ of his (not-very-talented) girlfriend Avice Crichton. But while Julia may be deeply in love and very vulnerable as a result, she isn’t one to be trifled with and as the rest of the story plays out, we see not only how she gets her own back but emerges positively triumphant (though not without a stumble or two)!

As Theatre opened, I couldn’t help but think of a theatre with Maugham’s vivid descriptions of the different settings, Micheal’s office, their home, Julia’s room and even Tom’s shabby lodgings very much having the effect of the various sets on which the different scenes play out.

Julia epitomises Shakespeare’s ‘All the world’s a stage…’ for she is the inveterate actress, always playing her role, whether on stage or off, but perhaps never entirely realising it till to her shock her son Roger questions whether there is a ‘real’ Julia at all? But as we’ve seen, there is, for even though she is ever the actress, she isn’t devoid of feeling, in fact, can feel passionately as she does for Michael and then Tom. She may be completely self-absorbed but she doesn’t disregard others’ attributes, acknowledging more than once Michael’s fairness and kindness for instance. For the most part too, she comes across as a good judge of character (seeing things much better than the rather literal Michael), and is fair (despite her jealousy) in her assessment of Avice Crichton (this doesn’t mean the latter gets off lightly or at all). And yet it would seem at times she misjudges, especially when it comes to Tom as to whom one can see red flags where she doesn’t seem to, falling even for obvious manipulation; she seems equally oblivious when tongues begin to wag, until Dolly de Vries, friend and admirer tells her so to her face; there are other blunders bringing her to the brink of humiliation, and people see more than she realises they do. Yet, she is a joy to watch, especially in that last segment as her feelings, intelligence and craft come to her rescue, bringing her the ultimate victory exactly where she can best pull it off—the stage!

But amidst all these entertaining manoeuvrings and make believe, Maugham weaves reflections for instance on acting and reality; how actors turn the ugly in real life to the beautiful on stage   

What you don’t understand is that acting isn’t nature; it’s art, and art is something you create. Real grief is ugly; the business of the actor is to represent it not only with truth but with beauty. If I were really dying as I’ve died in half a dozen plays, d’you think I’d care whether my gestures were graceful and my faltering words distinct enough to carry to the last row of the gallery? If it’s a sham it’s no more a sham than a sonata of Beethoven’s, and I’m no more of a sham than the pianist who plays it.

While Julia’s family with Michael and Roger might well be one where the lines of theatre and reality blur and appearances assume prominence, her other family—her widowed mother and aunt who now live together in the latter’s home in France are quite the opposite—bring in another face, one could say of the real. Here Julia’s fame is an embarrassment not to be talked off, and while she is pampered and looked after, she is brought down a notch or two as well.

And the feelings that Maugham is working with all through the story–love and heartbreak, betrayal and jealously are very real too.

One can see this is a world Maugham knew the ins and outs of, and while he gives us a look into all its intricacies and contradictions, its beauty and glamour and what goes into creating them; its conflations of the real and the make-believe, he also gives us a very entertaining read!

p.s. The meal that Julia and Michael invite Tom to initially had me thinking of Maugham’s short story ‘The Luncheon’, the very first work of his I ever read.

This was my first read for Karen and Simon’s #1937Club

This also qualifies for #ReadingtheTheatre hosted by Lory at Entering the Enchanted Castle!