LONDON GOSSIP.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 153, 27 June 1908, Page 7

LONDON GOSSIP.

(From Our Special Correspondent.) MR. FINERO'S NEW PLAT. LONDON, May 15 '"An episode in the history of'a provincial family," is Mr Pinero's description of his new play, "The Thunderbolt," which Mr George Alexander produced on Sattrrday last at St. James's Theatre. It is a very sordid episode, and provincial people have a legitimate grievance over its being foisted on to the provinces as something that could only happen outside London. The "Times'" critic thinks that Mr Pinero's choice of a provincial site for his play is only one more proof of his dramatic sagacity. "Provincial life," he observes, "is human life reduced to its elements, with all adventitious and disturbing factors eliminated." Clothed though it is in high-sounding phrases, this is just the ordinary Cockney view of the provinces; very complacent, very superior, and quite beside the mark. Human life can only be redxiced to its elements on a desert island, and it is absurd to regard the life of the provincial as so much more primitive and simple than the Londoner's. In many respects, the life of the average Londoner is amazingly narrow and circumscribed. But he clings with pathetic tenacity to the idea that in some unexplained way he is superior to his brethren oi the provinces, Mr Pinero's chief power as a playwright lies in his ability to tell a story v irough the medium of his characters, Yd in "The Thunderbolt" he provides moving and impressive plot, handconsummate skill. The etory cento- rO und that terribly conventional and tfi^ ac Ujare theme —a vanished will. hae died a bachelor, leaving 4,170,000, aud no will can be found. TL family lawyer explains to the assembly family that if no will is forthcoming Vcn money will be equally divided among tj e r.ext-of-kin. But Mrs Thaddeus Morth\o re) wife of the poorest of the brother startles the family by suggesting tha part of the spoil shall be handed ov» r to the deceased * man's illegitimate daughter, jijss Helen . Thornhill, the family r 'bete noir." Hei reason for this was that ii there had been a will, ijg. presumptior ■ was that Helen, and eht alone, woulc have benefited under it. back; up his wife's proposal, unti the indig nant family grudgingly consety s to o ff e some financial assistance to the girl But Helen proudly refuses. If er o wn father has forgotten her, she v>ll not take a penny from the family. c In the second act, Mrs Thaddeus --ons fesses to her husband that there was a * will, in which everything was left tv * Helen, and that she had destroyed it for l > the sake of her husband and children. ' Thaddeus is stunned—his dreams of fortune vanish. His wife is a criminal! ' The third act finds Thaddeus taking his i wife's crime upon himself. He tells the "• assembled family that he had found a n will, and destroyed it. They cross-ex-a amine him, and he stumbles pitifully, a and finally rushes headlong from the ?. room, hysterically crying, "Don't touch ii her! Don't you harm a hair of her i, head! She's been a good wife to mo!" !- The last act shows Mrs Thaddeus mak:s ing pitiable confession of her crime to ;- the family. The lawyers indicate the a punishment she has incurred if the law •c is pnt in motion; but Helen refuses to | i, put the law in motion. She insists that ■t the c-state shall be divided up, and, a3 d Thaddeus and his wife will not touch n their share, it shall go to therr child- ;- ren. So the lawyers discreetly retire, it and the family arrange the settlement. ,c Mr A. B. Walkley, the leading dramar _ tic critic in London, describes "The Thun- \- derbolt" as "a masterpiece in its way, ,f the peculiar way of Mr Pinero, the way \. of telling a story with directness and rap- , n idity and sledge-hammer force. Its een- .» tral situation is one of extreme ppigj Q nancy, set forth with absolute veracity j" as well as finished art. It has humour— n conventional, as we have been at some ie pains to explain, from its 'classic' subject, but robust aTid genuine. Above all, the play has Mr Pinero's tightness " of grip; it takes the attention captive >n rom the outset, keeps you palpitating ... with excitement, and gives you the sensation, when all is over, of having spent V an evening with a 'tremendous com- *' ganion.'"