Anyone who is so accustomed to seeing harrowing mystery plays that he is able to sleep better after seeing such a play than before doing so should enjoy the production at the Copley Theatre this week. Although distinctly different from the usual run, "The Silent Answer" is no play for one whose nerves are not in the best of health. However, there is enough comic relief strewn here and there in the steps of Annie, the maid, to make a worthwhile evening for many.

The grimness of the play does not lie in a series of murders as is so often the case but in the presence of a single character, Bobble Spence, a victim of poison gas who can neither speak nor move sufficiently to write. He it is who in the end gives the answer to the question "Who did it?", but it is not given before a long investigation by Inspector Faucet, the detective assigned to the case. By means of some tricky work Faucet, ably and amusingly played by Francis Compton, decides that the only person who knows anything about the murder is Bobbie, for that pitiable person was of necessity in the room where the murder took place at the fatal moment. He then proceeds to question him about the murder, despite the fact that his only way of answering is by turning his head either toward or away from the inspector.

A very complicated plot is unwoven in a fairly smooth manner, with only an occasional rough spot. There are a few places which are rather improbable and unconvincing, to say the least. This is especially so in the final act, but on the whole everything goes off well enough.

Altogether "The Silent Answer" is a different kind of mystery play, well done for the most part.