"BELINDA."

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 12, 15 January 1929, Page 5

"BELINDA."

MISS VANBRUGH'S CHARM.

WARM-HEARTED WELCOME

Watching the wonderful welcome back laft nicht's audience at Hi* Majesty's save Miss Irene Vanbrupb and Mr. Dion Boucicault, one could quite understand how MiccPS.Mul actors mu(=t hate Myins farewell—not the annual one to which we have become inured in lccent years—but tho final and irrevocable f.uewell. Onsupposes Miss VanbrnsH must retire soir.r dny, but >lie apparently bclons* t o \\ xc same as Pctt>r I'an: she refuises t'i prow up bevond ;-. r.itaiii point, ami i> Mill as vivacious and charming a> a cirl of twenty. Another thinp would sti ik- one «!ien watching the way the au.li.nce levelled in the performance. "Belinda"' is not a woik 01 genius it is just a pl.-.isantly ainuiejne thoroHKhly ronmly of the "I'uncU" type of huiuotii. But it is a play, neither a cinema whirl noi a ballet set in }:\7r.. and. the people enjoyed it like stock turned on to a fresh erass paddock. While we can prwllKe siuh ;.l.i>er> n> Irene \ anbrnch and Dion Boucicault the sta-rc nerd never fear in.>vic.«, talkies, or any combination of them.

liene is like Charles Lamb, and one or two other intimate fi iends oi the world--sl>e iii«t]>ires in her admirers that sonse ot personal undcrstandinc whicli Cives each one a sou o: sj«H.ial claim t<ner: each ore thinks he is able to appreciate her with more understanding thTJTi anyone else. On the stacc she is perennially tre.-ili. feminine, just a trifle wayward as all charinin.' people are allowed t<. be. does not pretend to have more brains than most men think women should possess, and >et twiMs all and sundry round her little finger—much to their enjoyment.

"Belinda" was written specially for Mies \ anbrueh and Air. Boiiiuaiilt, and it fits tjifin procisely. but for the niattT of that, any ;.lay they choose fits them. The story with Belinda, nineteen years separated from her husband over a matter of a braid and the way o f dressing the hair on joy ing the early spring in her rlPliglitttil honie down in Devonshire. Sh«lias two admirers, a young poet and an elderly statistician. Her daughter is just back from school in Paris, and is passed off as "my nicee Miiw Robinson/' so as not to spoil the picture. A fiction is invented about Miss Robinson's missing papa, Belinda makes her hand contingent "pen finding? him, and then the fun begins. The poet given up the chase (rather shamefacedly, it is true, but nevertheless emphatically I and falls in love with the alleged niece. Little Baxter clings on to the end. and one feele rather sorry that polite contumely should fall on his bowler hat. his starched ehirt (surely the last in England) and black tie, not to mention his borinp speeches and his statistics. Of course Belinda's long-missing husband turns up minus the beard. Belinda, unsuspecting, falls in love with him, and until things are smoothed out he expends much wrath on all poets and statisticians who come poaching on his preserve*, even though he had been away nineteen years—a waiver which was too much for one to swallow; Milne should have made it more probable—but Miss Vanbrugh could carry off anything and make a fool of any almanac. Miss Vanbrugh revelled in the name part. She made one quite understand wither husband left home, and also why nineteen years could not damp his desire to treat the poachers as he did the jungle lions which occupied hie time during his self-imposed banishment. Milne calls hi* play "An April folly in three act*." Miss \ anbnigh entered into the spirit of it exactly, and carried the audience off it* feet just as she carried the poet and' Baxter. Miss Rowena Ronald made a very natural girl just out of school, very fond of her beautiful mama, and tremendously interested in her affaires de coeur. Of course Mr. Eoucicault was Baxter. the elderly admirer, who never quite forgot his importance. his dreadful bowler hat. his unique stiff shirt, his turned-down collar, and made-up black bow. How ever he wandered into the enchanted circle of Belinda nobody but Mr. Milne knows, but once inside he provided plenty of fun. Mr. Ronald Ward made an excellent long-haired poet. The most vivid personality among the men was that of John Tremayne the wandering husband of Belinda. " His renewed interest in his wife's love affairs was certainly belated, but Milne must t*ke the blame. Mr. .T. B. Rowe played the part with a quiet forcefulness. every word and gesture telling. Such acting u essentially English: one seldom meets it among colonial actors; and it alwaye leaves the impression that you would like to know the man personally Miss Annie Saker a« the maid was the only other person in the caste—onlv six characters in all. so it can be imagined there was not much time off for anv of them above all for Miss Vanbrugh ' Belinda ' will hold the boards for two more nights; on Thursday we are to see On Approval." and throughout the season there will continue to be equallv quick changes the repertoire including six plavs in addition to "Belinda"