"FAIR AND WARMER."

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18150, 13 August 1924, Page 14

"FAIR AND WARMER."

A SPLENDID COMEDY. That stirring and eventful comedy, "Fair and Warmer,'? which enjoyed such a splendid season at the Prince of Wales Theatre, London, with Faf Compton in. the leading role and Dor- i othy Dix in prominent support, was produced at the Theatre Royal. last night by the Nellie Bramley Company in a manner quite up to the standard of the original presentation. The comedy, which on occasions in fe - second and third acts develops, by Us riotous progression, into a cataclysm of farce comes from the pen of an able playwright,. Mr Avery Hopwood, and is characterised not only by strength of construction and an excellent development of interest, but also by arresting dialogue and many striking lines. It tells of the troubles of a couple ideallv mated to the outward eye but who narrowly escape matrimonial shipwreeK as the very outcome of that placid harmony. The wife, perhaps no more foolish than the average woman, creates for herself a grievance inasmuch as her husband gives her no occasion for alarm or even anxiety. Certainly the husband possessed a perfection of conduct which might reasonablv cause a woman to become suspicious, but it is hard to imagine' that any wife of experience would entertain a genuine belief in her husband's "ineffableness" and at the same time an ardent desire that lie should, to show his manhood, become something of a rake. The husband in the first act was undoubtedly a character calculated to try tho patience of anybody. He was a complex of negatives, a very moratorium of a man, but even at his awful best he hardly deserved the fate his exasperated and somewhat giddy wife intended, that of separation. His affection for his wife was the only sentiment that animated his peculiarly aloof nature, and the shock of the threatened parting, coming at a time when he imagined that all was right as right could be, wrought in him a (violent change'. He sought counsel with an old college chum, and acting on that gentleman's most egregious advice, forthwith projected himself into a whirlpool of- complications which _set two households at stormy loggerheads. "Carry on with some ether woman" advised'the college chum, "any woman will do." "What time or company like the present" reasoned, the hitherto model husband, and seizing the opportunity when he was left alone with the wife" of his friend, that lady also cherishing a grievance, mutatis mutandis, in' respect of her _ husband —he, with the able co-operation of the second party, the lady, embarked upon a carousal, the nature of which would try the sternest stuff of the most hardened sinner. In a sorry plight the two were ultimately discovered by an.indignant wife and'a thunder bellowing husband, and the rights and wrongs of the whole • situation were, after a storm tossed passage, finally adjusted. Miss.. Nellie Bramley, . Blanch Wheeler., the wife of the college friend, and the co-operator in the, great adventure, played a splendid part, tone possesses a fine faculty for. comedv effects and a happy manner of presenting the different phases of her woi* t . In the' experimental carousal ecene she rose to the situation right! nobly, and left no doubt as to the success of the expedient adopted to acquire an air of dissipation. Mr Arthur Cornell as Billv Bartlett, the hitherto impeccable husband, was also well cast. Some of the best comedy work in the whole . play came. from him in the first act. In the succeeding acts, after he had stamped on the accelerator, he became a whirlwind of activity nnd led the double household a. prjeity dance. Miss Bramley and Mr Cornell between them kept the house in roars. of laughter. Miss Sylvia McNair, as •Mrs Bartlett, made the most of an exacting part, and one could not but ad-- ■ mire the great artistry she displayed in the- presentation of difficult '.moods' and actions. Mr George Hewlett, as Jack Wheeler, the friend with the advice, was fully alive to what was required from a man who found his counsel recoil staggeringly upon himself. Mr John Galway, as Philip Evans, the more than platonic friend of Mrs Bart.lett, went through some good old standard love-making of the irregular type, •and. later comported himself with distinction as the superfluous gentleman. Miss Ethel Bashford, as lessie, the maid, was a piquant little lady and most pleasing at all times, especially in the final act, when she administered first aid, compounded largely of Worcestershire sauce, to.the sorrowful victims of a rash experiment. _ "Fair and Warmer," with its long succession of most mirthful situations and complications, will be repeated tonight. .