"SMILIN' THROUGH."

Press, Volume LX, Issue 17984, 30 January 1924, Page 12

"SMILIN' THROUGH."

GERTRUDE ELLIOTT IN A PERFECT PART. If only lliat it enabled Gertrude Elliott to appear in a perfect part the romantic play "Smilin* Through" will surely Justify itself. The Theatre Royal vras packed oat :a.st night "when the play came on for tho first timo. Miss Elliott's art is so transcendent and her spell so potent Lnat her performance last night came with all the freshness and force of a firrt triumph. The part suited her most admirably and her many charming qualities were all displaced to the best advantage. Nobody present would have but regretted had they missed seeing her in so charming a performance. The play itself deals with the overtaking and eternal theme, but its construction contains elements of novelty which mark it out as something quite different from the ordinary love play. There is a hint of Maeterlinck about it and more than a hint of Conan Doyle, and for the remainder it follows any good model. It opened with a prologue with a setting and an atmosphere not unlike that of the Land of Memory scene in tho "Blue Bird'* and the two departed anothers of the future lovers plan to bring about the union they both so ardently desire. Truly here wa3 a case of a marriage arranged in Heaven. The play when it opened depended for its action on what happened fifty years before when a bride-to-be falls dead in her promised husband's arms, shot through the heart on her wedding day by another suitor, rejected, infuriated, and intoxicated. It is but fair to the murderer to say that ho intended to kill the bridegroom, but chance and a scuffle directed the bullet. This tragedy, as may well be imagined, soured profoundly the whole life of the bridegroom. His epirit waa one of bitterness towards the destroyer of his bride and his happiness and his only consolations were the appearance of the shadow of his long lost betrothed and tho existence of his niece. Nothing is eaid as to the fate of the rejected lover who encompassed so terrible a vengeano©. He must, however, have lived in retirement for some considerable period after the crime, for when the play opens fifty years later, there appears a young man, iai3 eon, who inevitably wins the affections of the niece. Here is a fresh calamity for the old gentleman, who for so many years had nursed his anger against tho assailant and ail .hi3-stock. Ho violently opposes the match, quite naturally one would imagine in the circumstances, but all others are against him—his old medical friend, who waa his best man at the wedding so tragically forestalled, his housekeeper who was a maid in attendance on the bride on that Bame occasion a half century before, his niece herself, and finally tho flpirit of. hia dead bride. This accumulation of opposition proves in tho long run too much for the old gentleman. /

Miss Gertrude Elliott had tho part of the niece in the play, and that of the bride during the second act, when the tragic story of the post was re-enacted. Ever lovable, times pathetic, at times humorous, she played the part with a perfection and charm quite unexcelled. Mx J. B. lio-.vo was the .complete lovct in the play and tho rejected /suitor in the story, two quite different "types. The scenes following hi 3 return from the war disabled * and shellshocked showed him at his best. Mr Mayne Lynton was the medical friend and neighbour of the old gentleman, as he was' his be3t man for the wedding that was never celebrated, - and he had opportunities of proving his sterling merit in many trying situations. Mr "William Mollison was the bereft bridegroom in the story and the soured old gentleman in the play. His work also reached a veTy high order 01 merit. Miss Lilias Waldegrave was a nice-spoken maid in the story and an equally nice-spoken old housekeeper in tho play. Mr T. M. Oliff had to carry out tho somewhat thankless duties of the unwanted suitor >in the play. He appeara at first as a somewhat brainless kind of country fop, but in the, final act, aftar his return from tho war, he developed into quite a passable and likeablei young man. The play itself brought into requisition from time to time different emotions, and it closed: impressively in a scene of profound pathos. , "Smilin' Through" will be repeated tonight. "ENTER, MADAME." FINAL PRODUCTION OF SEASON. On Saturday another new play will ho presented for the last four nights of the Gertrude Elliott season. Tho new; piece, "Enter Madame," is said to be one of the outstanding successes of tho repertoire. On its recent presentation. in Sydney, a loading cxitio wrote:—"Rarely has euch Buporb acting as that of Miss Gertrude Elliott (Lady Forbes Uobertson) in 'Enter Madame' been seen in Sydney. The principal characters in the comedy are Madame Lisa Delia Robbia (Miss Gertrudp Elliott}, an Italian prima donna, and her husband, Gerald. Fitzgerald (William Molliaon). The latter has become' tired of travelling all over the world merely as an appendage to his famous wife, and longs for quietness and domestio oomforts of his own fireside. ' Urged I>y the clever widow, Afisa Flora Preeton, who occupies an adjoining flat; audi is unremitting in her attentions to him, he at last obtains a divorce, which is to be mado absolute in three months. Then Madame, having hoard of h-er husband's intention, travels at express speed from Europe and descends upon him in New York like a whirlwind. She brings with her tha queerest imaginablo entourage, the members of vrhicTi are responsible for tho wildly hilarious "jpmcdy in tho play, and Madame at once begins the reoonquest o£ the husband whom she really loves. The humorous happening!) provide a large store of rich entertainment for the audience." The box plana for "Enter Madame" will open at The Bristol this morning.