THEATRICAL GARDEN PARTY

Evening Post, Volume LXX, Issue 61, 9 September 1905, Page 13

THEATRICAL GARDEN PARTY

— .—-♦. — -♦ , Celebrities of the stage put forth their best efforts at tho garden party which waa given, under the most auspicious conditions, at the Botanical Gardens, Kegentfs Park, on the 14th July (says London Era), in aid of the Actors' Orphan-" age, when rank and fashion graced tho scene and assisted materially to lighten the burden of a deserving charity. Famous actresses joined forces in the sale of articles of use and adornment, and actors of renown took up roles with which they had nover before been identified. Tho outstanding feature of the afternoon was tbe "new and original tragedy by tho Chelsea Shakespeare, George Bernard Shaw" entitled: "Passion, Poison, and Pctrification j or, Tho Fatal Gasogetie." Hie scene is a bod-sitting-room in a fashionable quartor of London, where Georgo FitzTollemache, having failed in his attempt to stab his wife with a tremendous dagger, declares that ho has put poisonoua powders in the gasogene, and that the drink taken from it by her lover Adolphua will be fatal in ten minutes. FitzTollemache, howevnr, rolonts, and states that limo will act as an nntidoto to the drug. Cement is torn from tho ceiling, and oaten by tho doomed man, who also consumes a plaster cast of his lady-love, but all in vain, for a, drink has tho -effect of solidifying tho lime inside him, and tho unfortunate man becomes petrified. Tho piece caused the utmost umusoment, duo chiefly to tho droll acting of Mr. Cyril Maude a Ba B Adolnhus Unstable, tho ill-fated lover. Miss Ireuo Vanbrugh burlesqued the methods of melodrama delightfully in the part of Lady Magnesia, and Miss Nancy Price, as her maid, in curl-papers, wa« a study in oddity. Mr. Arthur Willioms's policoman and Mr. G. P. Huntloy'a doctor were characteristically quaint; and Mr. Eric Lowia distinguished himself as the resourceful husband. The play, which lusted only ten minutes, was given Bix timos, to crowded houses. Outside tho theatre, Mr. Lionel Brough, with long blade ringlets and a. tall hut, and Mr. Brandon Thomas, invited the crowd to -"walk up" in tho best booth style, varied with witticisms of an up-to-date chari. actor, which wero greatly apprecinted t