BLAND HOLT SEASON.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 325, 12 October 1908, Page 10

BLAND HOLT SEASON.

"THE BREAKING OF THE DROUGHT." "The Breaking of the-.Drought,", a melodrama in four acts by Arthur Shirley:— Olive Lorcltc Miss Harrio Ireland Marjorie Galloway ... Miss Jennie Pollock Judith Galloway Miss, Bessie Major Diddy Frills Miss Muriel Dale, Sarah Whitney Miss Dorothy Brunton Tom Wattleby Mr. Max Maxwell Jo Galloway Mr. Arthur Styan Varsy Lyddleton ...... Mr Carleton Stuart Freddy Yales Mr. Charles Brown Gilbert Galloway Mr. Leslie Woods Rev. John.Poniiitliorne Mr. A. Harford Walter Flour (known as"Damner") Bland Holt "Tho Breaking of the Drought" is not a play which the friends of Mr. Bland Holt will care to remember him- by. It is melodrama in one of its crudest and most unedifying forms with little indication - that the real art of tho playwright was ever requisitioned. Tho colouring is Australian. Any lurking doubt on the point is removed by the scenic artist, whoso facile brush in picturing a drought-stained run, with its scared paddocks and shrivelled gums, early in the play is a capital aid to the imagination ; but to leave no loophole for straying minds, mild cattle are led across the stage, and stockmen (wearing tho carmine shirts of tradition) and "swaggies" follow in their tracks. As a theme the most depressing side of Australian life is taken. In the first instance tho owner of the drought-stricken selection, a scarred old battler built on the lines of Steele Rudd's "Dad, of tho Wayback," is reduced in circumstances by the firo that devastates his station; and, secondly, his soil, who has been given a medical training, gets in with a set in Sydney as vividly-hued as the stockmen's shirts aforesaid. With inartistic brutality the playwright introduces the audience to ladies who apparently lost their aitches with their good names. This ostentatious flaunting of a shady phase of Sydney life (even if it be a faithful reflection of what might be) is tho reverse of edifying, and is not even necessary for tho purposes of the play. ->■ : After a number of scenes illuminated in this way, an anti-climax is reached by the garotting of a woman of pleasure by the man who. has led the squatter's son down ISasy Street. The latter lias forged tho old man's name, and reduced his family to dire straits of penury. "Dad" becomes a scavenger in Paddy's Market, "Mum" sews sacks and keeps a coffee-stall, and the funny friend of the family, named Flour (alias Damper) drops in from time to time to cheer things up, for which the audience is grateful. It is only natural that "Dad's" daughter should have a lover, 1 who, on .his return from Calcutta, where lie lias made a successful deal in horses, puts tho family oh its aggregate feet again, alid gets "Dad" appointed manager of the station he formerly owned. Tho wayward son, a spineless idiot without tho brains of tho national post, protests for tho fourteenth timo that he is ashamed of himself, and is once more received into the bosom of his family. Where the characters arc so weakly drawn ; as in' "The Breaking of , tho Drought," criticism ■ of., the players is to a great extent disarmed Mr. Arthur Styan as tho aged selector, Jo. Galloway, tail, strong,. and. grey as an ancient gumtreo, looked racy of the Riverina,- and talked with rough ease in the vernacular of the way-back. Tho Australian is not a dramatic person,, so tho opportunities for florid acting are naturally tho reverse of numerous, but Mr. Styan supplied all tho part called for. Miss Bessio Major made Mrs. Galloway '-a dear, lovable, old soul, with an appealing •sentimentality for 1 her wayward son and the world in general. A bright spot in tho cast was Miss Jennie Pollock as Marjorie Galloway, a girl of spirit who is as fresh and sweet as the dawn wind in tho Blue Mountains. Miss Pollock can have no quarrel with nature in tho scoro of looks, ana she acted brightly throughout, particularly where she invades the precincts of the vermilion Hurricano Club for tho purpose of shaming her brother from tho lotus fields^ of folly to the hard, high road of better things. Mr. Leslie Woods plays the. erring Galloway boy without much character. ' Anyhow there s. little, in the part, but he might indicate in his habit and make-up the effcct of the fast iifo he is supposed to »o living. Miss Harrie Ireland, in the person of Olive Lorette, was the leader of the bevy of women of minor consequence who afflict the piny, the ways of vico in a woman. Miss Muriel Dale was quite as at home in tho frivolous Diddy Frills, who protests that grammar is of no use to a girl with a figure such as she possesses. .Miss Dorothy Brunton (a daughter of the scenic artist) mado a pert waiting'maid, who becomos important as the sole witness of the garotting incident. Mr. Max ■Maxwell makes an indifferent Tom jWattleby, the horse-dealing lover of Marjorie Galloway —his performance did not > grip. As Varsy Lyddleton, a professional at tho art of "iambing-down" and garotting, Mr. Carleton Stuart - was mildly interesting, _ and Mr. Charles Brown's coon was tho. brightest bit of character-acting in the play. Mr. Bland Holt was a spry as ever as Damper the station roiiseabout, and his innocent deception regarding the uncle who dies at the place inscribed on his movablo shirt-cuff, which, stout Mrs. Galloway has' disconcertingly sat on, is provocative of much laughter. Scenically, Mr. John Brunton. is at his best in tho opening scene —tho droughtstricken station; and - tho tableaux of the burning bush and the ruined homestead are very effective bits of painted stagecraft. The same praise, cannot be given to the crudelypainted and coloured pictures shown at the end of Act 111., which are an artistic mistake. "Paddy's Market" is a lively slago picture of one of the sights of • Sydney, but there is none more bright and beautiful than the concluding scene —a home on tho sunny shores of Mosman's Bay.- In this scene Mr. Brunton has "collared the atmosphere" with wonderful fidelity. _ At the conclusion of the run of The Breaking of the Drought," a dramatisation of Hall Caino's novel "The Bondman" will bo produced. The final production of' the season will bo "The Great Rescue."