NEW DRAMATIC CO.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1277, 4 November 1911, Page 6

NEW DRAMATIC CO.

"TBI; WOMAN IN THE CASE." "The Woman in tho Case," a drama by Clyde Fitch. Cast:- T Julian Eolfo Gerald Ear Soupei Margaret llolfo Mabel Trevor Mrs. Hughes _ Nelly Mortyna Llsie Brewster Violot Paget Dora Miller ■.... Jenny Pollock Louise Mann Florence Gretton Claire Forstor Elinor Foster Thompson (a lawyer) ... Hugh C. Buckler Inspector Williams John Do Lacy Sweeney Joo Bronnan Jimmy O'Neil Martin Keith Walters Harry Hallcy Louis Klauffsky ....Arthur Cornell Tho late Clyde Fitch died too young. Had ho lived lor another decade he would probably havo done much better work than is represented in nine-tenths of th« plays he wrote. Ho is one of the few modern writers who had that nativo facility of getting to the heart of his story without unduo waste of words or scenes, and infusing it with a.warm, vivid human breath, which goes far to create an atmosphere of reality. Moreover, there is ever a. bite in his stories, something grippy and vital which arrests. Maturity and affluence might have, it is reasonable to assume, added virtues which those of his plays seeu here lack—literary grace, dramatic finesse, and 6ubtlcty. "Barbara Freitchie" was a pretty play enough, written round a well-known incident in American history, "Lovers' Lane" was a charming play of rustic manners, but "The Woman in the Case," produced at the Opera House last evening by a highly competent company, is of tterner stuff—a good, if not a great, play—and it held the audience last evening from tha rise to the fall of the curtain.

If Julian Rolfe had not been a simpleminded, unforeseeing person, ho would have thought twice about telling his friend Phillip Long what the woman tho latter loved (Clairo Forster) really was, and certainly would not have dreamt of raising the devil in her by repeating his charges before her face, and spoiling her chance for ever of winning the on» man who might have pulled her together. He does so, however, and Long, in th» misery of his disillusionment, puts a bullet through his brain, rather than live down tho memories of his love for an utterly vulgar and unscrupulous woman. Julian marries a charming woman, and is immeasurably happy in her companionship, when he is struck by a bolt from tho blue. He is charged with the murder of Long. Long's people, refusing to believe tho suicido theory, move tho earth to disprovo it, and are aided by Clairo Forster, whose hato for Rolfe (himself tho flamo of a day) has engendered a desire for revenge. Rolfo is accused of the murder of his friend, and having been at Long's rooms on tho night of the affair, finds it impossible to prove an alibi. To strengthen tho case against him, tho Forster woman produces Ic>yo letters of Rolfe's, and asserts that ho murdered his friend because he loved her himself. After Rolfe's arrest, even his frieud and lawyer begins to doubt that ho can save him, so strong is tho circumstantial evidence. It is then that woman's wit is matched against woman's devilry, Margaret Rolfe, intensely in love with her somewhat inconsequential husband, leaps into the breach with an inspiration. She decides that Claire Forster alono knows the truth, that she alone can savo her husband, so trading on the other woman's love of wine and money, sho resolves to worm herself hit* her confidence, and does so with a pretence of adopting Die habit of Claire Forster'* class. Sho takes a flat near Claire's, dines and wines her, sympathises, condoles with her, and flatters her vulgar vanities until finally under the influeneo of liberal potations, Claire tells her ovor the supper table that Long committed suicide. That is the dramatis climax. So overwrought is tho brave little woman that on hearing the confession she is attempting to throttle the woman, when her lawyer and a police officer, who havo been posted in anticipation of the revelation, rush into the room, jubilant. Thereafter the play limps—what follows is the happy end, without which no conventional drams is complete. Fitch's play is assisted by acting »f high quality. Miss Mabsl Trevor, wh« plays Margaret Rolfe, is a highly-eapahlo actress, with a natural touch which frees her from any trace of theatricalism. Her emotional qualities are rare, without being magnetically compelling. One admires her clever acting in the scene where her husband is arrested, end later when bringing Claire Forster to the point. An outstandingly excellent performance is that of Miss Elinor Footer, who jiresenta an audaciously clever portrait in her Claire Forster, with her vulgarisms, her cupidity, her bursts of cheap hilarity and flippancies, and the cunning of the serpent that underlies it all. Her acting in tho supper scone, where her control of mind and tongue sags and slackens under the inltuciico of wine, was high art. Mr, Hugh Buckler gave a sound pnrpcwfnl reading of the part of Mr. Thompson, tho lawyer, and his line acting in the prison scrtio made it one of the most inl'ercsling passages in the play, Mr. Gerald K, Sonpcr, as Julian Rolfe, was quite tin. emotional and he missed a dramatic chance at the moment when he is nccusod of tho murder, and is almost catmal in the prison scene, when his fate han'ss in vhe balance. Miss Nellie Mortyne gives n capital sketch of an absentminded fussy old dame, Mrs. Hughes; llanv llalley is excellent as the rubicund Walters, and Arthur Cornell is correctly loud and vulgar as Hie bibuloui' Louis KlMiffsky. The play is admirably mount, ed, and the dresses are as stylish as they are lavish. "The Woman in the Case" wiU be proseuted until further notice.