"WHEN KNIGHTS WERE BOLD."

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 197, 18 August 1908, Page 3

"WHEN KNIGHTS WERE BOLD."

THE FUNNIEST FARCE SIXCE "DR. BILL." For sheer delirious absurdity and delightful nonsense, of the type that leaves you with streaming eyes; aching with helpless laughter, too weak and happy to care to analyse the ridiculous cause, nothing has been seen in Australasia since the days of "Dr. Bill" and "Jane" to approach 44 When Knights Were Bold," produced last evening at His Majesty's Theatre by Mr Frank Thornton. The idea of the play is brilliantly original, and admirably carried out to its absolutely nonsensical conclusion, but this is not the chief merit of this rollicking farce. What exactly it is which captivates ones, it would indeed be hard to say, and on looking back it is diffiniult to recall the points which set one off into fresh bursts of uncontrollable merriment before one had recovered from the last paroxysm. But the facts remain; one starts to laugh. immediately Mr Thornton comes on the stage, and for the first two acts one laughs continuously, sometimes more violently than at others, it is true, but that is all. In the last act the merriment is very nearly as acute, though the audience is by this time somewhat exhausted, and the joking is apt to wear a little thin. The plot is briefly as folows: Sir Guy de Vere a cheerful, good-natured, somewhat brainless ami entirely frivolous scion of ancient family has come into the title, inherited a castle old in days of Coeur-de-Lion, and a whole kitful of ancestors, who are the bane of his existence as they are the delight and glory of Lady Rowena, whom he aspires to wed. tn season and out, Lady Rowena raves over "The days of old," and rates Sir Guy, for a degenerate, unworthy of his position, and unmindful of his long descent. The victim of a cold, which he endeavours to cure with much whiskey, and sick of hearing of the grandeur of "the good old times," Sir Guy goes to sleep in his dress clothes in front of his own ancestral hearth, in his own ancestral balls, and promptly proceeds to dream, that be is transported back "00 years, and living in the detestable "good old times." It is with this dream the second act deals. There are all the characters wbo appeared in the first transformed into the characters they would have been 700 years before. The butler becomes the seneschal, an inane friend who told stupid jokes, the jester, Lady Rowena, the temporary inmate of a convent, (escaped to his castle for sanctuary 1 ., and so on and so forth. Sir Guy is still in his evening dress, and is regarded as bewitched. It is in the ludicrous discrepancies and contrasts between the actions and slang of a twentieth century young man, amidst the suroundings and high-flown manners and customs and the quaint dress of the days of chivalry, that the fun, irresistible in its absurdity, arises. To attempt to give instances is hopeless, the play is emphatically one of those whicli cannot possibly be described, and which must bo seen to be understood. The last act—whore Sir Guy awakes, but only psjrliallv at first, and proceeds to frighten tbe whole household by pretend - I ing he has gone crazy on the " good old I days." and imagines himself his own an- | ce-.tor dra"s a little in places, but. on the whole' the fun seldom flags, and I one leaves tho theatre literally tired out with laughter and full of praise for on tdmirable performance. The main burlen of making the farce a success depend* as usual on one character, if Sir Guv wore once to flag, the result would be "disaster. But Mr. Thornton never (la"*, he is alert, and "on the jump" every second he is on the stage, and as this'is practically the whole evening, he must be entirclv " used up " at the finish, though to do him justice ho appears as fresh as when he started. His performance is a remarkable one, and will rank as equal to the very best of the many excruciatingly funny impersonations he lint 5 given us. He is most capably and admirably supported by a company who "' play up " to him with a vigour and ■' clan " f.avinsr which, shipwreck would be almost inevitable. The farce has to be plavcd at 'lightning speed, and this difficult task is achieved with much distinction by tho long cast of characters. So well indeed are subordinates' parts taken that individual mention would be invidious. The farce, which should certainly not be missed by anyone who enjoys a laugh, is preceded by an adaptation of Arthur Morrison's clover story "That Brute Simmons." It is capably played. Airs. Simmons of Miss H. French being well worth seeing. The intervals last evening between the acts were exceedingly lengthy and so wearisome that " the gods " became justifiably demonstrative. The change of dress for all except Mr. Thornton is on both occasions heavy, but surely could be got over more quickly. If not, it would be better to drop "the curtain raiser." and to let pec-ple get home at a more reasonable hour.