PRINCESS THEATRE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2069, 19 October 1893, Page 36

PRINCESS THEATRE.

"OUR FLAT.' 5

Two hou-s and a-ha!f of boisterous merriment, suspended when the curtain went down only to be resumed when it rose again, recalls at the close of the second and third acts, and an abundance of applause attested the great success of the production at the Princess Th"atre o€ the three-act farcical comedy "Our Flat" by Miss Myra Kembfe's company. The fun kept bubbling up from the beginniug to the end, affordiug the audience neither the leisure nor the inclination for anything but laughter at the extraordinary mischances which occur. There is nothing more extraordinary about the play, however, than the circumstance that it was founded upon fact, the incidents described in it having, it is understood, actually happened in the experience of a person intimately connected with the authoress, Mrs Musgrave. The plot turns upon the monetary difficulties of Reginald Sylvester and his wife, who have made a runaway match without the husband having even undergone the formality of making the acquaintance of Mr M'Cullum, his father-in-law, the latter being a stingy and austere parent, in whose house his daughters, Margery and Lucy, were practically kept prise net s. It was to escape this bondage that Margery eloped with Reginald, quite content to live in a top-storey flat in London, furnished on the hire system. The wedded pair are in a chronic state ot indebtedness to their tradespeople, Reginald, who is a dramatic author, converting large quantities of foolscap and ink into trag dies which, although he describes them as publications of undoubted merit, are refused by all the managers in London. Tne inevitable consequence is that the majority of their visitors are indignant tradespeople, but, as Reginald argues, "to pay the butcher and baker would be a manifest injusticotothe milkman," and this argument weighs the more strongly with Margery for the reason that they possess not the wherewithal to pay either the butcher or the baker. The hope which springs eternal in the human breast is not a stranger to the unappreciatt d author, notwithstanding the fact that hardly a mail passes but the domestic servant, stiuggling under the burden of bundles of manuscript, enters the room with the remark, "Here's gome more of this rubbish, ma'am, aud a shilling to pay ! " — for the theatrical managers have not even the courtesy to prepay the postage on the rej-efced plays. A lower flat in the same building is occupied by an impecunious artist named Clarence Vane, who lives in the hopes of gatting a picture " hung " in the Academy, but is not deterred from getting married by such a trifling circumstance as the want of funds, for, borrowing £10 from Reginald to get married with, he takes Lucy M'Cullum to the registry office aud makes her Mrs Vane. The various devices resorted to by Sylvester and his wife toputeff their importunate creditors are very amusing, but their furniture is eventually removfd by the owner in consequence of the last instalment of the purch-ise money not having been paid ; and then, in oae of tho besb and most comical scones ever presented on the stage, the wife and the servant sst themselves to make up the deficiency, and in the course of a few minutes, in view of the audience, by bringing into requisition such articles as packing cases, a towel-hor.-e, a bath, a clotheshorse, and a barrel, and by the plentiful use of drapery, they succeed in fairly representing the furniture which has been removed, though there is hardly a seat in the room which will bear sitting upon. This, however, does not pay the tradespeople, and Margery, recognising that her husband's tragedies are a drug in the market, sets herself to write a farcical comedy, the material for which is found in the story of her married life. This is accepted by Nathaniel Glover, a theatrical manager, and with the price paid for it the couple are able to pay off two of their most pjeiting creditors, and the father-in-law relents and forgives not Margery only but Lucy, whose husband's fortune also mends, for he learns thit his picture has been hung, aud it is thus upon favourable prospects for both happy couple* that the curtaiu is rung down. The misunderstandings and embarrassments which provide the merriment in this exceedingly amusing comedy arise, develop, and culminate in the most harmless and unobjec'ionable manner. Miss Myra Kemble entered with great spirit into her impersonation of the resourceful Margery, playing the part with conspicuous vivacity, and imparting a very happy touch to it. The distinct cleverness which she displayed in the second act in the hurried transformation of all sorts of unlikelylooking articles into draped, if dangerous, pieces of furniture, so as to give the room at all events a genteel appearacce before the expected arrival of the eagerly-awaited manager of the Star Theatre, largely contributed to the complete success of the scene, and, on the termination of ttis novel exhibition of art furnishing, her efforts were recognised by a general and gfnuine round (f applause. One cf the failings of Margery was a love for dress — in proof of which one of the largest of Reginald's creditors was the dressmaker, to whom he owed such a trifle as £70— and this justifies Miss Kemble in wearing three stylish costumes during the play. A hardly less important personige than the mist' ess of the flat is the untidy maid, Bella, who was, indeed, mi-taken by the theatrical manager for the mistress, and vice versa. Bel'a is herself a creditor of her employers', and her dissatisfaction with that position is shown by the fact that she is forced to give them notice; but when "for the third time of asking" she requests them to take warniDg she is placated by the gift from her niistre c s of a tea gown — "the most becomingest dres*," she carelessly cmfepsep, "she has ever tried on" — a continuance of her allegiance is fairly secured. Bella it is who acts as a sort of buffer between the creditors and the debtors — she it is to whom the butcher refuses to allow them "another ha'potth of meat, nob even New Zealand " — but she appreciates the humorous side of their embarrapsing condition, and, moreover, she appreciates — what no ore else does — one of her master's tragedies, her critical but surreptitious examination of this play enabling her to pass a favourable opinion regarding it. The part was played by Miss Emma Gwynne, who presented an fdinirablc and altogether satisfactory study of tto ch?ratt<r It would be hard to find a better representative than Miss Gwynue made. Miss Flora An 1 tead was well cast as Madame Vo'aut, the dunning dressmaker, who has some knowledge of business, for she scouts the notion of pressing her rich customers and driving them to rival dressmakers, and who

also has a foreign accent which vanishes when sue becomes angry, and is roplared hyjirich lri=h brogue ; Miss Rhoda HalkeM had » slight. part as Lucy M"Julluui, arid wus a ploasing and attractive exponeul of it ; aud Miss M-ulge Tempest played effectively aud created siniuscmcnt in the characte r of an inquisitive girl who visits the Sylvesters' fiat, andjhas a habit of blurting out unpleasant truths" Mr Edward Sass did excellent justice to the part of the play-writing Reginald. His acting was quietly effective and eminently natural. He is clearly too good an actor to over-play a part. In the character of Nathaniel Glover, who abbreviates his name into N. G., with the result that his friends call him "No Good," Mr George Leitch made his reappearance in Dunedin after a long absence, and was accorded a cordial welcome. The conventional theatrical manager on the stage is an individual of the " crushed tragedian " type, but Mr Leitch represents Nathaniel Glover as a welldressed, mild-spoken gentleman— a class of character, in fact, which he delights in, and which he always is highly successful, as he was in this instance, in depicting. He was in great moasure responsible ior the fun, fast and furious, and tbe laughter, loud and long, which prevailed during the second act. Mr H. Plimmer played the pait of Clarence Vale capitally, Mr A. J. Ivimey's impersonation of the irate father-in-law was uneven, Mr W. J. Beresford made his points well in a servant's part, and Messrs Scott Inglis and M Majeroni filled small parts acceptably. The play was received all through •with unmistakable marks of approval.