THEATRE ROYAL.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 10636, 21 April 1900, Page 8

THEATRE ROYAL.

It was a mystery to the house that wit* nessed the performance of "A House of Mystery" last night, why Mr Douglas Ancelon should have displaced "Hamlet" to put on such a piece. It is styled a comedy drama, but if the interpretation of Mr Ancelon'acompany is a correct one, it is faree —possibly unintentional farce, but still farce. Some of the performers did not know their parts thoroughly, and the least said about their acting the better. Mr Ancelon assumed the part of Dr. Carr, one of the most important characters, and made a lumentable failure of it. Although Mr Orlando Daly gave a conscientious, if slightly overdrawn study of tbe young physieiu-n whose role seems to be to set ihipgi generally to rights, and Mr C. Daniels in the character of a precocious youth gave a humourous turn- to matters occasionally, their efforts were overshadowed by other imperfections of too marked a character to pass unnoticed. Miss Ada Woodhill played Margaret Carr, an incomprehensible character, accepting charity at the hands of a man who has wronged her, and Miss Helen Gibson pourtrayed a wife dying of poison with some success. Miss Ivy Gorrick made a realistically murderous Indian ayah, and Miss Lyndsay a very remarkably made-up widow, the mother of the precocious youth, while Miss Ethel Hind deserves sonic praise for her pourtrayal of the part of Jenny, a housemaid.

The piece will be repeated to-night,