"THE SEVEN KEYS TO BALDPATE "

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3048, 9 April 1917, Page 3

"THE SEVEN KEYS TO BALDPATE "

A WHIMSICAL SATIRE "The Seven Keys .to Baldpate," a farce mystery in two acts, by Geo. M. Cohan. Cast:— Elijah Quiinby J. B. Atholwood Mrs.'Quimby Mi's. Clias. Holloway William Kallowell M»gee...Robert Greig John Bland Guy Hastings Mary Norton Beatrice Holloway Mrs. Rhodes Marion Marcus-Cltirke Peters Kdwin Lester Myra Violet Yorke Lou Max Kenneth Brampton i .Tim Canr.in .'. Herbert Leigh Thomas Haydon Clive Farnuin Jisgs Kennedy Thomas Lloyd Officer Speldin Raymond Lawrence Hal Bentley Harold Moraa What a peculiar title 1 Five out of every six persons, who were sufficiently interested, made that or a similar remark about "The Seven Keys 'to Baldpate" last week. Not one of the large audience thai packed the Grand Opera House on Saturday would now dispute that it is the most natural ■ title in the world for the most original, and one of the most ingenious and vastly entertaining comedies that ever came out of America. George M. Cohan, its talented author, calls it a mystery farce, but the tag of the play, if nothing else, places it as a satire on melodrama. All the old trioks that have been used in a thousand ways in popular melodrama 'and novels are there —ghosts, "crooks," murder, graft, love-at-first-sight, the good* girl's, love for the-bad man, etc., all wander up the hill to Baldpate, taking with them all their, old force to interest, thrill, charm, and shock; and, truth to tell, ' so much are we wedded to these elements - that there is just a teeny little regret when, at the end, the audience finds that it-has been tricked; that the whole concoction is a delicious fraud, and 'that things are not. what they seem, and certainly not what anyone suspected. /

The American playwright is ,evcr keen on surprise, as an ingredient in his plays, and / often sacrifices logic and the all-but-inevitable to get it, hut none have succeeded in anything like the. degree Mr. Cohan has in "The Seven Keys." , Imagine a .summer hotel on a lone mountain-top, wrapped ■in-the snows,and silence of mid-winter, utterly deserted and desolate in its sense of isolation; Out of the blizsiard comes an old couple, who have struggled up the "ten minutos" mountain to mako the place habitable for a man, whose mission they know not. . Only long enough is given to grip the atmosphere, when in comes a lively hustling , young fellow, who soon makes it plain that he is there to write the "bestseller", of the year '. in twenty-four hours that is to win him a" 5000 dollar, bet with the owner'of the frozen hostelry, known as the'Baldpate Inn. He receives' from the caretaker the one and only key to Baldpate, ushers the old people_ into the wintry blast, , and , prepares, in silence and alone, to win.' the wager. But Baldpate is not so deserted as be thinks. ' The first visitor is a young_ man, who 'phones someone that he is depositing the sum of 200,000 dollars in the Baldpate, which can be duly lifted by the parties for whom it is intended—melodrama in the pure. When discovered by the writer, the "crook" "pulls his gun," and. makes the usual bully show common, to the gun-man when ho "has the! draw," until, by a ruse, he is trapped into a room and locked in. As ho is making his escape, In comos a sweot miss and her chaperon. ' The former is a newspaper reporter, who lias heard of the strange wngor, and wishes to see it through. She brings a chappron, and on the next gust comes the 'grafting" mayor of the town of Reuton,' with bis fawning jackal. To pair with the latter is an adventuress, who has also come after the spoil in the guise of' the .wife of the railroad magnate, who is paying a wad of dollars to the crooked Mayor for some franchise or other. There is also the railway magnate himself, and > a loony chap who plays the ghost, and is petulant when crossed. By the time the first act is over' the novelist has secured the money, and sent the re-1 porter girl to town with it, and until he gets a telephone ring this bright set of crooks" arc: set in a row under a grinning six-shooter. It is an effective picture—the whole gallery of mean_ people.on which the existence of American melodrama Jiangs. ' . Ille y are still there when the curtain rises on the next act, but each one, nervous and 'irritable/at the trick fate has played, sets to reviling the other, and there are.some lovely disclosures m the best Sheldon-cum-Walter-cum-V oilier manner, and language, until the telephone tinkles. When the novelist, in order to speak on the wire, hands his commanding gun over to the loony chap there is a riot,'which: ends, ln.the' novelist being ■ made a prisoner. At this release men's passions fly loose, and as the result of the recent disclosures the jackal shoots the lady "crook," and the gang tries to place the fcnme on the now bewildered" novelist. A crisis is imminent. when m stalks the Sheriff and tries to get to the bottom of. the tangle of evente that have kept Baldpate simmering. What happens afterwards—how the lady reporter loses the money; the manner in which it turns iip; the Sheriff's designs on it; how they are defeated by the Hermit (Peters); and. finally, how love wins its way, is too deliriously quaint and amusing in notion and purpose to give away. Suffice it to say that the novelist wins' his wager on time —a tired scribbler but .cheerful in the knowledge that he has served ;,up "the old dramatic stuff"once more in a new and. "best-selling" guise, and that he has won the girl of his heart. The whole of the actionof the satire takes place in the one scene—the lobby or office of Baldpate inn, an elaborate set with great glass doors and roof". ■ The winter effect is. admirably sustained by the storm effect that makes one involuntarily shiver each time the doors are opened. The production and stage management were beyond praise. Thanks to the. smooth action of the performance, the curtain fell at 10.25 p.m.—the best of. testimony to the skill of the producer (Air. Robert Greig). For all the audience knew to ,the contrary the company might have been playing the comody for six months past. Apart from the production the performance was highly satisfactory. There are no weaknesses in the Ipng cast, and the smallest part is as well played as the biggest. Mr. Greig as William Magee, the novelist, is the pivot of the; play, and made the part one of outstanding interest. Magee's breezy vitality, jovial alertness, ' and ■ quick sense of humour were represented in a manner that won over. the . audience completely in- the first ten minute's. Mr. .Greig's plump laughter, too, is an asset" not to be under-rated. The joke over the "only key" grows by what it feeds on in Mr. Greig's hands, and net until the last five minutes does the "dominant seventh" make its appearance. Miss Beatrice Holloway had little to do but x be sweetly girlish and look wide-eyed love at the hustling novelist, which she did to perfection. Her scream on finding the dead body in the upstairs •room Was one of the many thrills in flie farce. Miss Marion Marous Clarke was subdued and lady-like as Rhodes-(the chaperon),"and.'Misß Violet Yorke as the highly-coloured "crook," Siyni. offered a flaming contrast tn women as the pretended wife of the railway magnate and as the common unlovely "crook," with oaths as ready as i a bullook-driver'6. Of the interesting

range of male character parts, none was so outstandingly good as the Peters of Mr. Edwin tester. _ As the quaint and , whimsical "permit" who; has been driven "soft" by his wife running away with a commercial traveler, this experienced actor was ft dear, delightful old bogey, who always does , the wrong thing. Mr. Lester's was a finished bit of finely restrained character acting. Mr. Herbert Leigh gave tlie necessary weight and roughness to Jim Cargen (the scheming Mayor of fteuton), and Mr. Kenneth Brampton was exceptionally effective as his jackal, Lou Max. .There was fine nervous force in Mr. Brampton's acting when iTO founded on Cargen, ana subsequent when he shot Myra. John Bland was soundly and seriously played by Mr. Guy Hastings, and Mr. J. B. Atholwood as Elijah Quimby added another to the long list of uncommonly effective character parts that stand to Ins credit. Mrs. Charles Holloway as Mrs. Quimby was hardly as natural as her partner. Mr. Clive Farnum as Thomas rlayden and Mr. Thomas Lloyd- as Jiggs Kennedy (the Sheriff) were both well within the frame of the pictute. As chief aid to the producer, Mr. Charles Wheeler's stage management deserves mention, in which, department the lighting and storm effects were particularly good. An orchestra, under Mr. J. F. Woodward, played popular music. There will be no change of bill until Saturday evening next The public is reminded of the matinee performance this afternoon.