"ROMANCE."

Evening Post, Volume XCVI, Issue 41, 16 August 1918, Page 3

"ROMANCE."

The size of the audience in the Grand Opera House last night was a tribute to the undoubted excellence of Edward Sheldon's play "Romance," which was being staged for the second time in Wellington by the J. C. Williamson Co., headed by the talented Miss Kathlene MacDonell and Mr. Charles Waldron. Quaintly dressed, the production is altogether delightful, and affords Miss MacDonell ample scope to display that dramatic power of which she speedily shows herself to be the possessor. Although the cast as contained in the programme is a big one, the story revolves round but three of the principal characters, but interest is sustained throughout, and there are many tensely dramatic situations. Margherita Cavallina, the prhna donna, is the central figure throughout, and the story deals with her life—a butterfly life in the main, until she really meets a man to love and learns the vast distinction between the glamour of intrigue and the real happiness of true and abiding love. Betrayed in her comparative youth, Cavallina changes from the artless girl to the gay and frivolous woman of the world, and at the time of the story of the play she is the mistress of a wealthy banker, Cornelius van Tuyl, surrounded by all that the heart of woman so situated could desire. In this position she is when there comfts across her path the Rev. Thomas Armstrong, in whom she realises her true affinity. Ardently she desires to change from the glitter of the false life she has been leading to the peace and quiet of a home, but, torn with conflicting emotions, she is unable, owing to the nature of her past, to ally herself with one who is eager to forgive and forget and do all to make the future so bright as to overshadow the memory of the dark days behind. Cavallina retires from her stage triumphs, and lives in seclusion until her death, while the clergyman goes on his way doing good with a dear memory in his heart. As Cavallina, Miss MacDonoll has a big part, and it taay be at once said that she does full justice to it. Varying emotions she depicts with artistic grace, and she is perhaps at her best in those scenes where the real tragedy of her life is beginning to dawn upon her. Mr. Charles Waldron, as the clergyman, acts with a quiet dignity and characteristic restraint in . a role which might easily be overdone. Quite a finished performance is that of Mr. Roy Redgrave as Van Tuyl, the banker, a suave and courtly man of the world, who, perhaps not altogether selfishly, lives for pleasure. Miss Emma Temple has a quiet part as Mrs. Armstrong, aunt of the Rev. Thomas Armstrong, and the other members of the cast who appear fill various roles with credit. "Romance" is evidently in for a successful season in Wellington and elsewhere in New Zealand. It will be played again to-night and to-morrow night, and is to he followed by "The Rainbow," "Cinderella Man," and "Daddy Long Legs."