"THE GLAD EYE."

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 64, 16 March 1915, Page 2

"THE GLAD EYE."

A VERY MERRY FARCE. Since the days when Hugh Ward used to make us laugh in his hilarious stage stories, we have not been well catered for in Auckland in the way of farces. This alone would have ensured "The Glad Eye" a most cordially responsive wink from the other side of the footlights, even if it had not been such a jo3-oua optic as it is. The farce is French, the most Frenchy parts being toned down with a full brushful of good old British whitewash. The plot of "The Glad Eye" is very much like i'.s predecessors. Two otherwise model husbands living in the country with their charming wives, find the caU of tho Paris boulevards too insistent, and invent all sorts of excuses to explain their absence. Gaston Bocard has pretty nearly come to the end of his resources in this direction. In fact his better half has a very shrewd idea of his versatility, and every time she finds him in a peccadillo she treats herself to some new frippery. She U, by the way, the best dressed woman in Paris. Maurice Polignac, the other incorrigible, hit on the happy idea of imaginary aeronautics. When he wishes a respite from the ties of the domestic hearth he sees to it that a telegram arrives from the Comte de la Beuve, the owner of the famous aircraft Zebre. As a matter of fact Maurice has never set eyes on the count—but nevertheless he manages to build up a mighty reputation as an airman, and his wife suspects nothing. Bocard finds out that Polignac'g friend the count and the ballooning are merely an excuse for a few days in Paris, and he is lost in admiration. When the next bogus telegram comes announcing an impending flight, Bocard insists on making one of the party. Just as the hypocrites are saying good-bye to their wives the Comte de la Beuve is announced, to the horror of Polignac and his accomplice. As a matter of fact he wasn't a count at all, merely _ private detective employed by Madame Bocard, who had long had her own ideas about thi3 ballooning. The antics of the pair of conspirators in effusively greeting the Count, their slap-on-the-back "Hallo-my-dear-Count" tactics, and the Count's utter bewilderment, were the first of a long series of most absurd situations. His Majesty's has not echoed such laughter for a long while. The precious pair go off at last, and in the next act we see them return, Bocard,,the better to play the part, being encased in an aeronautic 6uit of blue dungaree, with goggles complete. In tbe meantime comes a telegram telling how the Zebre was blown out of her course, and had not yet come to earth again. This necessitates a hiding in the library gallery, which overlooks the living room, and the funny situations tumble over one another with a rapidity almost too sudden to follow. The only thing to do is to sit back and laugh. An elderly father-in-law who has a taste for "astral fluids" and other hypnotic things that are easy to guy, and his medium, a delightfully vulgar ex-waiter'who doesn't know much about esoterics, but has undeniably second sight wherever there is a chance of making francs, add to the fun. There is also an absurd Frenchman w.ho want 3 a reversionary interest in the affections of Madame Polignac, and the advent of the real Comte de la Beuve doesn't lessen the complications. In the middle of it all, down from Paris comes Kikl. the midinette from whom Polignac got the "glad eye," and who was, in fact, the reason of the fictitious essay in aeronautics. A robbery of the safe, an alarm of burglars are al3o thrown in by the imaginative authors. All the while the errant husbands are hiding in the library gallery in imminent fear of discovery. They can't come down until the Zebre does, and their agonies of suspense cause wild hilarity.

The piece is uncommonly well played by the company Mr. Beaumont Smith has sent round. There is not a character that does not fit in perfectly. Tom Shelford as Bocard, >and Henry J. Ford as Polignac—one long, thin and dry, the other short and merry—provide most of the fun. They are both excellent. Frank Bradley a3 Galipauxi the susceptible father-in-law, whose belief in second sight perhaps had something to do with the ea3y manner in which he fell a victim to the "glad eye," wag one of the best funny old men we have had, and the medium played- by Edward Landor was absurdly droll. Among the women of this astonishing | household Madame Bocard, played by Miss Alice Hamilton, Madame Polignao (Miss Elwyn Harvey) and Kikl, played by Miss Ethel Dane, had most to do ■ The two wives were very natural, and liiki, who possessed the eye which made glad the hearts of men, was delightfully fresh. Mr. Harry Sweeney gave a clever study of a stage Frenchman. Mr. Beaumont Smith's company will repeat "The Glad Eye" during the rest of the week.