THE THEATRE.

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2729, 25 March 1916, Page 9

THE THEATRE.

The. World's a theatro; the Earth b stage.—Heywood.

["Br Sir/Vina.}

"Van der Decken." David Bolasco, tho New York dramatist and producer, is always at work, and that he builds well who that have seen "Tho Darling of tho Gods," "Madame Butterfly" (tho play), and "The Girl of the Golden West," "Sweet Kitty Bollairs," "Du Bairy," "the Hose of the liancho," and "The Heart of Maryland" can doubt? Now ho has written another play, or rather a series of connected scenes, entitled, "Van der Decken, "being the old legend of the "Flying Dutchman" in a faithful setting, written for Mr. David Warfield. Betasco presents Van der Decken as a young man not more than 30 years of age, with the sadness of centuries in his eyes, whilst his crew aro all depicted as very old men. Tho phase of the legend he lias adopted is the one in which tho murdering Dutchman is allowed aslioro onco every ni/ie years, and can only receive pardon by seeking out tho girl who will "lovo him till death." Years ago W. G. Wills wrote a play round the same themo for the late Sir Henry Irving, and called it "Vander Decken" hut it was not a success, tho supernatural being stressed overmuch. Warfield is said to present a striking figure' as the sadeyed sea-rover, and, to judge from his pictures, ho might have stepped out of tho frame of one of those old Dutch paintings in the Amsterdam Gallery. "The Pariah Pump." Greatly daring, Mr. Frank G. Layton (himself a provincial town councillor), author of "The Parish Pump," pours cold water on that most cherished of British institutions—local self-govern-ment. His amusing piece, -which was brilliantly-played at the Duke of York's Theatre, is that rarest of . all things, a successful satire. Written on broad lines, it is full of pungent humour and primitive fun. Its irony might he finer tmd its ivit more polished, but the author's shafts never lack point, and only once does the action come to_ a momentary pause. Parental authority and magisterial dignity personified hy the Mayor of Silverditch are openly flouted by his modern daughter, the militant Ada, and his homely, oldfashioned wife. The swollen-headed Mayor, being self-made, wants to make them both ladies. His wife must not, therefore, demean herself by housework nor his daughter by marrying a curate, whom the Mayor imagines to be penniless, but who proves to he the son of a millionaire ibrewer. Nor is the Mayor moro fortunate in managing the affairs of the town. Hot baths for tho people is the burning question of the day, and publio -washing is discussed along party lines. Moreover, Ada intervenes as the representative of a womans 1 league for municipal _ purity. There is to be 110 more betting or drinking or jobbery 011 the council, and unseemly jests are made abotit its sacred symbol, the parish pump, by a frivolous young man wh« claims to represent the Labour Party. Peace is finally made between the public and domestic opponents by an affable Peer, who owns lialf the town. So that nrettv Miss Ada not only gets her way) but the Mayor also is x satisfied. London Items. It is reported that all the London theatres' have been doing excellent business of late. The effect upon it of a possible renewal of Zeppelin raids remains to be seen. One,of the most successful pieces is the everlasting "Charley's Aunt." _ _

Mathoson Lang is varying evening performances of "Mr. Wu" with matinees of "The Merchant of Venice." He has a new Portia ill Lillian Braithwaite,' successor to Miss Hutin Britton, who is ill.

Ellen Terry has been lecturing on "The Letters in Shakespeare's Plays." Charles, Hawtrey is to reappear in a new play by H. M. Harwood, entitled "Please Help Emily." The supporting cast will include Eric Lewis, Fred Kerr, Nigel Piayfair, Lottie . Vcnnc, and Gladys Cooper. Oscar Asche's old-fashioned piratical play, "The Spanish Main," seems to nave caught the public fancy. The Lord Mayor has called a Mansion House meeting to raise funds in aid of the Concerts at the Front, organised by Lena Ashwell. "Twelfth Night" and "Romeo and Juliet" are among the latest productions, under the direction ot ,Ben Greet, at the "Old Vic."- V.iola Tree played her namesake in the comedy. '"Sarah Bernhardt has been drawing groat crowds to the London Coliseum with "Les Cathedrales." "Hit-the-Trall Holiday."' The usually sure-footed Georgo _ M. Cohan has slipped this season in writing "Hit-the-Trail Hglhday." The play has attained success (says "Collier's"), but it will not add to Mr. Cohan's re-cently-wou reputation for craftsmanship ,and it will not achieve the smashing success which tho subject warraniicd. Cohan undertook to dramatise Billy Sunday. Here was, and is for that matter, an American subject essentially dramatic and possible of treatment in almost any vein from tragedy to farce. Cohan chose farce, but unfortunately he did not. make his choice until lie had written one act of comedy. On top of this mistake the author kept his play offstage. Billy Holliday, a bartender, is enlisted through a jxirsonal spite into a fight for temperance. In his first appearance as a public speaker he quiets a hostile audience and scores to such an astonishing extent that the managing editor of the New York "Tribune" is induced to prepare a newspaper for the second act topped by the eight-column head: "Booze Expert Turns Temperance Preacher."

Tho big meeting, however, occurs some time between the first and second acts, and the audience is allowed to see Holliday in action only onco, and then lie proves a rather unconvincing speaker. After the first act, which is a careful and convincing picture of the happenings in a small-town barber shop, tho play develops into a more or less conventional farce of the doings of a man upon whom has suddenly been thrust prosperity. Possibly the most surprising oiling in Cohan's failure, to produce an adequate Billy Sunday is his seeming inability to write the slang which Billy Sunday speaks. "I've got a gospel gun that, shoots straight," Billy Sunday once said. "It's loaded with rough on rats, ipecac, rock salt, and barbed wire." Tho Cohan ordnance lacks some of these elements. At any rate, Sunday's observation: "Do you think that because you say there isn't any hell that turns the lioso on it?" is not equalled by Cohan in spito of the fact that ho deals not infrequently with the place of torment. "Aw, you go to hell," is Cohan's favourite treatment of the subject. !

George M. Cohan is a quick, though shallow, observer of American life. He has a command of colloquial English and a strong senso of theatrical values. But Sunday possesses all these things and in greater measure. He is, w-e think, more nearly tho groat American dramatist than Georgo Cohan.

It is cheering to learn, wlion the Australiau-Ameriom managers are saying that England is producing nothing in the way of plays, that Horace Vaohell, the Englishman,'lias three plays running at the name time in New York. Those urei "QuiimcyV "The Chief," • -i ••

Shakespeare In Australia. Mr. Allan Wilkio, who has b'een playing "Hamlet," "Othello," "Twelfth Night," ami "The Merchant of Venice" in Melbourne, under that most surprising of all managers, George Harlow, is no stranger to New Zealand. Ho will bo remembered as the actor who played the Count du Barry in "Du Harry" and Jeffreys in "Sweet Nell," with Nellie Stewart last year. In these parts ho proved'himself a fairly capable stock actor, but one cannot recall his throwing off any of those rays that mark tho inspired Shakespearean mummer. The Melbourne Press has, however, treated him very kindly, _ possibly on the grounds that there is something praiseworthy in .George Marlow withholding the dreadful bosh he has been accustomed to servo up as melodrama, and giving the classics an airing instead. And I don't know that they are to be blamed. It is not bo long sinco we had Shakespeare here,' presented in a rather surprising manner by Oscar Asche, a vary dominating, rough comedian. Still, there are many who would pleasure in hearing tho blank verse, and joy in the profound philosophy and redundant wit that has stamped him as tho greatest soul of all times. It is hero given out that Mr. Allan Wilkio and his players aro to !come to New Zealand in the not far distant future. H. A. Jones's New Play. in New York on December 27, Henry Arthur Jones's latest play, "Cock o' the Walk," is an eclectic piece of back-work turned out by a technical expert. The author has taken Rover, I Fitzaltamont, and David Garrick, arid from them has evolved Antony Bellchambet-, a bibulous, disappointed quotation quoting actor of the old school, which Otis Skinner enacts with commendable spirit and earnest enthusiasm. Bellchamber saves an actor-man-ager from a- threatened scandal and as a reward secures the long-desired opportunity to act Othello 011 tho London boards; at the same time pointedly convincing a love-sick maiden of the very great dangers that await a too great devotion at the shrine of a matinee idol. The comedy enables its author to get* in some pregnant digs at the weaknesses and foibles of English titled actor-managers, and some sly slaps at the clergy.

After a trj'-out in Manchester and tho provinces, Mr Arthur Adams's oomedy "Mrs. Pretty and the Premier" was to havo been produced in London 011 January 31. The notices have generally been of a favourable character.