It seems improbable that Groucho Marx and T.S Eliot should admire each other, let alone choose to have a meal together. But meet they did in Eliot's home in June 1964, the year before Eliot died (although the action of Dinner with Groucho is actually set in a restaurant). Eliot had started by writing to Groucho in 1961 requesting a photo; Groucho had replied and this correspondence led to the meeting. The play is Frank McGuinness’s picture of what happened in that encounter.
What an improbable couple they seem to be; the quick-witted comedian and the nervous, ailing poet. There are countless references to Groucho’s films and Eliot’s work. The play starts with chicken soup - Eliot observes, “It’s chicken soup, not duck soup” to a somewhat bemused Groucho. In fact, you wonder how successful the meeting was. There is some awkwardness, some tension in their encounter. Perhaps Eliot can’t really disguise his contempt for the poorly-educated New York Jew and Groucho can’t quite take seriously the ‘British poet from St Louis’, as he calls him. Groucho wants to discuss Shakespeare; Eliot wants to know what Greta Garbo is like. The conversation frequently veers off on tangents; where they might be funny, they seem serious, where they are talking of tragedy they are funny. One of the funniest dialogues is about King Lear, or rather the mistakes of Lear's parents, and how Lear dressed Cordelia, who was actually a boy, as a girl to spite them. It is a total non-sequitur and very funny. There is more than a touch of Waiting for Godot to this play, especially so with the appearance of the proprietor who pops up at seemingly random times, sometimes sophisticated and sometimes plain rude.
There are so many seeming contradictions in the play. Why would the Jewish Groucho get on with a man who openly stated his anti-Semitic views? Eliot says that his father would not have allowed Jewish champagne in his house, for instance - yet Eliot in his later years professed an admiration for the state of
The acting is outstanding. Greg Hicks is a nervous, hand-twisting Eliot, conflicted, unhappy and doubtful of his own worth. Ian Bartholomew plays a jovial, nimble-toed yet sometimes very serious Groucho to perfection, and Ingrid Craigie as the Proprietor (or whatever she is) is superbly eclectic. The set is simple, really just a table and two chairs with some glasses and bottles, which makes the lighting and sound effects all the more effective.
It is really helpful to know in advance something of Groucho’s films and something about Eliot’s poetry to understand the frequent references to The