HIS MAJESTY'S THEATRE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 110, 10 May 1923, Page 6

HIS MAJESTY'S THEATRE.

MISS POLEfI'S KETUKN. Warmly welcomes back by a large audience, Miss Emelie Folini made her reappearance at His Majesty , * Theatre last evening after a considerable absence from Auckland. By her sheer ability this gifted actress has made herself a name in the first rank in Australia and New Zealand. She uses none of those adventitious aids to popularity' that are so brazenly adopted by some members, of the theatrical profession. Off the stage ethe never seeks that notoriety with which some artists of mediocre talents seek to eke out a reputation of . moderate dimensions. Miss Folini con- j quers by her art alone. For her return she chose Henry Arthur Jones' play "The Lie." Al-; though only nine years old, the play at times gives the impression of belon(ring j to a much earlier date. The explanation, of course, is that the war made such a gap in our lives that we now I regard many matters very differently compared with the fatal year of 1014,' which saw the first production of "The I/ie." Theoretically the sacrifice of one eister at the hands of another is full of poignancy—perhaps rather _ too much for these "nervy," unsettled times in which we live—but too many of ua have known what real poignancy and tragedy are since Mr. Jones built up his four acts on this theme, and there are weaknesses in the play that might have escaped but for the sharpening of our perceptions during the war years. The story of "The Lie" follows go°"i, stage lines. The Shales ("six humtrt*- 1 years at the 'Abbey, , my boy," as the baronet tells one of their guests) got i into low water financially. Sir Robert,! the last of a hard-living lot, something between a glorified groom and a sponger, has imbibed most of the family j estates. "The Abbey" is going to ruin, ] and the servants are few and insolent.; Of Sir Robert's two. orphan grand- ] daughters (his only belongings), one; lives with a rich aunt, and' the other ; has a very thin time with "Grandy" and the debts. Suddenly into the povertystricken ancestral home Lucy Shale (the lucky one) makes an unexpected return, and dumfounds the elder girl (Elinor) with a story of a marriage that did not take place and a shame that must be hidden. Elinor, always sacrificing, pawns some more of her mother's jewellery, and sees her unfortunate sister through. Gerald Forster, a rich neighbour, who also builds dams in Egypt, appears on the scene for a moment, and it is obvious that he and Elinor will fall in love. But the selfish sister has-her eye on him, throwa the. suspicion on Elinor over the marriage that should; have taken place but did not, and finally follows Forster to Egypt, where j they are married. All the time the i saintly Elinor, who hae kept the "Abbey" together, kept "Grandy* mode- \ rately sober, and stood loyally by her I snake of a sister, is in darkness, and cannot understand wiiy Forster so suddenly changed. At last Lucy's perfidy comes to fight, and then the' wronged sister blazes out in indignation—and afterwards forgives. Here and there the play is held together by very tenu- \ ous threads, and there is, moreover, the almost insuperable difficulty of believing that such a eister as Lucy ever existed. Granted that one cannot quite believe in the perfidy of her eister,-the part of Elinor was real, and ia it.. Miss Polini was triumphantly- good.-Time and again she nas to carry everything on her own ehouldere, and never once does «he let the.dramatist down. With the exception in : the first act, where she meets Forster, .of a- sort of pseudo naivete, a Blight lack of the aplomb that one would expect in the daughter of 600 years of "Shales of Shale Abbey," her acting was wonderfully good. She lives the character in. a; way. that carries conviction against one's better- judgment that such and such a thing might not have happened. Tins is' perhaps the highest test of an actress, that ehe should make the unreal appear real. Her stupefaction when ehe finds out that her sister stole Foreter from her by a lie—''The Lie," in fact—was most real, her subsequent blaze of wrath' most human, and her forgiveness artistically done. Miss Polini is well supported. Miss Kancye Stewart, as the inconceivable sister, had. a most difficult role, which she plays with unexpected.power. The character may test one's credulity, but Miss Stewart's interpretation most certainly does not. .Mr. G. Kay Souper plays admirably as the bibulous baronet who believed that England began to go to the dogs in 1835. There may be Wh spongers in the Baronetage, and if there are one wguld imagine that Mr. Souper had hit him off to the life. Never once did he falter. As a bit of character acting it was capital. Mr. Richard Hatteras played quietly and forcefully as Gerald Forater, and Mr. Raymond Lawrence made a good Noll Dibdin, who rented "Shale Abbey" at a high figure, and eventually brought peace to the' soul of the sorely-tossed Elinor. All' the smaller parts were capably filled. : The piece is well staged and produced, j and altogether last night was a fitting opening for what promises to be a very interesting season.