THE PRINCE CHAP.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 242, 6 July 1908, Page 8

THE PRINCE CHAP.

{, —_ RE-APPEARANCE OF MR. HARRY ROBERTS. The Opera House was crowded to its capacity on Saturday evening, when Messrs. Allan Hamilton and Harold Ashton pre-•sent-ed the new comedy-drama, "Tho Prince Chap" (written by Mr. E. 11. Peple), and at tho same time re-introduced to the public notice tho clever young New Zealand actor, Mr. Harry Roberts. Plays of the class of "Tho Prince Chap" can be said to be representative of a type born of the reaction following tho drawn-out period of tho intensely neurotic problem play, when plain steadygoing lovers of the .playhouse-were coerced into looking into their own lives in perplexed attempts ,to discover problems that really had no being, whilst others who had locked their- grisly . domestic skeletons behind the doors of silence found them burst rudely open, exposing the. thing in all .its lime-lit ghastImess. Many of these-plays wcro concc-ivcd and written by master minds,-and allared-liv their daring brilliance, but. the world was given problems ad nauseam,. and reaction was inevitable. "Back to the -simple life" became the popular catch cry of-.thoso sick to tho soul of tho wrongs of .that, civilisation 'known as "advanced," and the cry bccamo ochoed to a great extent in the work of those modern playwrights who wero clever euoujiJi to note the set of fancy's breeze. - Mr. Peplo almost travelled to'tho opposite - extreme in thoi making of "Tho Prince Chap," which, while borrowing few of tho deeper shades from tho dramatic palette, is invested with a simple charm and a dclicate freshness of idea, narl-atiyo and stage portraituro that make a sufficiency of interest, sweete.- to the taste than the disturbing-problem play, and a deal more wholesome to the mind than the fearsomo melodrama that reeks with blood, /-J] verm '!ion women. "Tho Prince Chap > pretends to be nothing more than a ove play—a - play of great heart interestbut throughout it has a buoyant spontaneity and a steady tricklo of capital comedy to chase away tho momentary shadows incidental to the story.

• William Peyton, a struggling sculptor in London, has made a promise to a dying model to look after her baby girl. Claudia, and t though the charge is almost forced upon him, the littlo dot soon wanders into , his heart, and stays . there. So the motherless ono prattles about the studio, hears the sculptor's love story as a fairy tale, in which ho figures as the Prince, and the "only ono in the world'''as the Princess, until'one day the latter arrives unexpectedly at:thc studio, and is passionately welcomed by the sculptor. Miss'AHce Travel's, of New York, may-have been all Peyton in his callow days imagineil her to bo, but the intervening years- have hardened her .into a woman of "the world, and as such she has formed a gilt-edged attachment on the iteamer in crossing the At-' (antic. Looking for a reason to break with' the good-natured, devoted Peyton, she practically accuses him of being the father of Claudia, and asks him as a_proof of his love get rid of the child. This ho emphatically refuses to do, and she leaves him with lis rosy "castles in Spain" in ruins round Dim. He hopes that it is not the end. but on Christmas Eve, when filling little Claudia's stocking with good things to 1 the accompaniment of the carol singers, ho receives a small parcel addressed in her writing. Trembling with hope he opens it, arid a bundlo of loiters—his -letters- .to- her— flutter .to tho ground. William Peyton's Christmas, -is not a merry' one. When next they meet Claudia has grown to womanhood; and Peyton, has crushed the memory of his one-time Princess out of his mind. Hav--11^ lost her husband, Alice drifts:back to explain weakly that she had been forced to marry for money, and had really loved him (.Peyton)' all the tinao. Ordinarily, n reconciliation would have taken place ' then for the - sako of a happy ending, but it is not so. Peyton will have none of her. ; He has concentrated all his love oil'his Ward, and so •receives rather a shock when his friend-, the Earl of Henningford (a steadfast friend of the studio days) asks for her hand. Tlio. Earl, a cheerful, dude,., but a h good ; fellow,. learns that:Claudia loves liimj but "not in,the way he means,",,.and-,it. ;; i.Sf in. tho*telling of tho Larl's proposal,that the .sculptor learns tliat, in his ward, a love, other than that due to a father,-awaits his acceptance, and so the story . ends. The finals ik perhaps rather unsatisfactory, as it is impossible, t6 work up any sentimental enthusiasm over a' union between May and, say, November, but it is woll within the boundary of probability, so it passes.

It is .a pleasure to see such a pleasant personality -on tho stage as that , possessed by Mr. Harry Roberts. The i part' calls for uo acting—Mr. Roberts merely has to be himself to. bo William .'Peyton—and, that, being so, he could not fail "to meet the',requirements of a part that demands a bright) buoyant temperament and' a tender heart .allied to an entire freedom .from theatricalism. Add to these attributes a refined, stage presence and a beautifully rich'voice, which Mr. Roberts possesses in no ordinary degree, and his equipment is complete.. During Jus American experience Mr. Roberts has learned that the moderns hold that personality counts before histrionic ability, and this has doubtless guided him in the selection of_ the play he is " starring " in; His instinct has;not deceived him. In his scones with the juvenile Claudiis 'of the first two acts (the part has a different delineator in. each.of the three acts) he' was deliriously natural, whether it was in, washing and,undressing the child; in telling' her'stories, or in hearing the little dot say her prayers. He was manly in his passion .and his grief, and offervescently. happy, in the lighter scenes. The play would not bo the play it is were it "not for the comedy, streak that chiefly concerns Puckers (a boardinghouse female rouseabout who sleeps in the coalcellar and favours sitting on a hot brick as the best means of keeping warm in winter time) and Runion, Peyton's servant. Miss' Mary Keogh' as Phoebe Puckers serves up about the brightest bit of low comedy work seen in Wellington for many years; Her I magnetic intensity, in with a coal-smudged face; humorous . English, and a fierce longing to become a sculptor's model, created no end to a desire for Puckers, and one could but regret when she disappeared in the gay rags of Madanie_ Mangelisi, having married a spangled being Mho '"ops through 'oops in the hair at the ■circus." Puckers was certainly the hit of-the evening. Mr. Frank Lamb plays Runion, the imperturbable man-servant, effectively,' -but almost too quietly, as on several occasions his remarks were unheard. That ho is a careful and accomplished artist was evidenced in the last act, whcre'ho foars being made a " hunderlin' by tho introduction of a housekeeper. Another excellent performance is the Claudia of Act 1, played by little Vera Huggett. She is. only six years of age, and yet sneaks her numerous lines clearly, naturally, and with a certain winsomeness. Little Beryl'Yates plays the part nicely in the second act, and Miss Justinia Wayne meets all requirements in tho last act. Miss Florence Eedfeni was quite ■ effective as Mrs. Harrington, (the model), dying very realistically. .Miss Vera Romeo,- in tho unsympa-thetic-part of Alice Travers, was successful in demonstrating Peyton's good luck in being jilted by her. Mr. A. E. Grecuaway' maintained his reputation as..a serviceable actor as tho Earl ot Hcnningford, and Messrs. Fred Francis, Stuart Clyde, e and Charles Stanford • wero satisfactory in--minor roles. " Tho Princo Chap" will be repeated throughout tho week. ■ .