Grow old along with Enid Bagnold. The last of life, like the first of it, is full of crotchets and ironies as she contemplates both parts in "The Chinese Prime Minister."

In this new comedy,… the author of "The Chalk Garden," that model of elliptical humor and wisdom, is writing again with civilized wit and the kind of mature understanding that forgets little and forgives nearly everything. In a theater accustomed to simplemindedness, if not downright barrenness, it is exhilarating to hear an urbane, yet affirmative voice that can be both teasingly subtle and joyously direct.

There are eight characters, and they have, after a fashion, identities. All but one, the main one, have names; she is simply She. And there, one suspects, is a clue to Miss Bagnold's intent. For she has not written a conventional comedy of manners, but using the form, she has composed a...