Cinema: Hepburn Semper Kate

A MATTER OF GRAVITY by ENID BAGNOLD

Legend has it that Sophocles wrote a play at 90 and used it as evidence to refute his son, who wished to seize the aged dramatist's estate on the ground that he was senile. Sophocles won the case. It is to be feared that if Enid Bagnold, 86, were put to the test via A Matter of Gravity, she would not fare quite so well.

Without Katharine Hepburn's high-voltage presence, this play would have flickered out on opening night.

Hepburn plays Hepburn in the guise of Mrs. Basil, an aging aristocrat who presides over a 200-year-old country...

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