"VIA WIRELESS."

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1146, 6 June 1911, Page 6

"VIA WIRELESS."

"Via, Wireless," a melodrama by Paul Armstrong and Winchell Smith. Cast:— llaisie O'Brien Miss Georgia O'Meara Warner Mr. Rouen iiottomley Kdward l'iukney Mr. Vivian Udwa-rus George Durant Mr. Eardiey Turner Mrs. Durant Miss liinnia. Temple Lieut. Sommers Mr. Lionel Atwill Francos Duraut Miss Evelyn Kerry Herman Master ff. Burns Lucy Smith Miss I'yfo Alexander O'Leary Mr. Jlaurico Dudley Smith Mr. Stewart Uanicr Messenger Mr. Henry Charters Bradley Mr. Oharles Blackall liarling Mr. Charles Graham Harsh Mr. Ambrose Manning "Via Wireless," produced by the Williamson Dramatic Company at the Opera Houss lest evening, is a play of mechanics, and its presentation opens up dull vistas of what we may expect in tho future, in the way of pabulum for the stage written round dill'erent phases of the workshop. Willi a jolt here and there, and a straining of tho machinery in places, a story is told feasible enough to pkasa those with a taste for big melodrama and sensationalism, and sufficiently realistic to thrill. The play is written by Messrs. Paul Armstrong and Winchell Smith, and was originally produced in New York with an American background, but a clever twist, of the pen has changed the sotting—a concession to sentiment altogether unnecessary. The authors have been quick to seize upon wireless telegraphy as a bit of melodramatic realism, and so'a voyage abroad, and a wreck at sea are inserted for no other purpose than to display this little bit of up-to-the-moment mechanism, the* omission of which would not affect the story in tho slightest. But to tho story. It concerns the forging of guns, on which the fate of nations depends. Old Marsh, draughtsman at Durant's steel works, has invented a gun which is to do big things. Pinkney, tho manager, knows it, and Pinkney is a double-dyed villain. So lie represents to Marsh that it would be folly to own the invention as his, as it would then be tho property of the Durant Company. Ho represents to Marsh that by calling the gun the "Reinstrom" the royalties on it would be passed on to him, and Durants would bo none the wiser. In tho meantime he has informed Mr. Durant that the royalties would be ten times the amount mentioned to Marsh—a scheme by which ho hopes to sop up the substantial middleman's profits. But Marsh's gun has a rival in one invented by Lieutenant Sommers, of tho Navy. As there would bo nothing but ordinary manufacturer's profits in tho Sommers's gun, and nothing for poor Pinkney, tho latter has little inclination for the Sommers gun—or for Sommers, for that matter, as the officer has made a distinct impression on pretty Frances Durant, the daughter of his master, for whom tho manager nurses a passion. So Pinkney talks over old Marsh, and puts ono Smith, a drunken foreman, up to "queering" Sommers's gun in the forging. It is here that the audience get a glance of what good stago mechanics can do. An interior of the furnace-room of tho steel works is graphically pictured— steam-hammer at work, molten steel being sent along conveyers, travelling cranes, creaking, furnaces belching red lire and fumes and, in the middle of it all move the blackened, sweat-stained slaves of Vulcan. Sommers's gun is "queered" by placing it in the oil-bath at too high"a temperature, but this is not known until the .tents take place. The news reaches Pinkney, Miss Durant, and Somniers at Madeira, .that the gun had burst at the trials, and killed three men, and by some mysterious means the matter of preliminary inquiry is placed in the hands of Bradley, a Scotland Yard detective, who, even at Madeira, has no doubt as to the guilt and innocence of the parties concerned. Ho hales Sonimers back to London to face a Court of Inquiry, and en route in the Durant yacht they are wrecked, and finally saved by Sommers's heroism in sticking to the "wireless" until tho yacht breaks up. Back at the works Bradley gels a rr-al conception of the position, and rights the wrong by a preliminary examination of Marsh, who, in breaking down, dramatically denounces Pinkney, aim gives the whole plot away. This is really the only great dramatic moment in the play, and it is emphasised by the flawless acting of Mr. Ambrose Manning as] Marsh. Losing the halting hesitancy which has marked the first stages of the scene, Marsh •■'shakes off the fetters of falsehood, and, in a speech alivo wirn real feeling, conveys liie grief that has ten torturing him since the accident, scorches Pinkney with unanswerable accusations, and draws a Tovolver to end it all. The dread act is prevented, Marsh is carried off a crumpled heap, and Lieut. Soinincrs clasps the girl of his heart with the full approval of an applauding audience. Mr. Lionel Atwill makes a prepossessing Lieut. Sonimers, of manner bright and breezy, Miss Kerry is quite nliarminc as Frances Durant. Mr. Vivian Edwards meets the demands of Pinkney, who is a dull, uninteresting fellow, in his villainy, and Mr. Charles Blackall strikes form as Detective Bradley. Miss Georeic O'Mcara is. particularly good as Maisie O'Brien, a wideawake typist, and with Mr. Richard Bottomley a.s Warner (Durant's secretary) sprinkles a few comedy beams expertly. Mr. Sfcwnrt-Garner roars round as Smith, and llUs Fyfo Alexander is properly pathetic .I s hi* perturbed daughter.' Mr. i'lardlcy Turner and Miss Emma Temple lend the correct air lo minor roles. The scenery—particularly the steel works and the wreck scene— represents a clever blending of the artist and the mechanic, with I lie latter predominating, Wireless" will be Droduced this and to-morrow evenine.