DRUGS IN DRAMA

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 26, 1 February 1926, Page 10

DRUGS IN DRAMA

MR. GUY BATES POST IN "THE MASQUERADER"

Playgoers who saw Mr. Guy Bates Post in "The Masqucrader" on Saturday at the Grand Opera House could have drawn several conclusions from the play. But two of them would be outstanding, namely, the scope it gave Mr. Post to display his consummate art, and that it was a powerful indictment of the evil of the drug habit. The play is based upon the novel "John Chilcote, U.P.," by Katherine Thurston. For the benefit of those who have not read the novel it may be explained that in the play Chilcote is revealed as a wealthy and brilliant member of Parliament, but a victim of morphia. So far probability is not overstrained, for genius and drugs have often been allied. Chilcote, in the play, however, has gone all too far by the time the curtain is raised. He is still brilliant, still the bright and. particular star of his party, and in him it.trusts; but he has become uncertain in his habits, spasmodic in his efforts, although firm enough in his principles and unshaken in his loyalty to his side. Moreover, he has grown cold, not to say sarcastically churlish, towards his devoted wife. However, everything is put down to "nerves, nerves, nerves," the result of overwork. That does not satisfy Old 'Brock, his man, a retainer of the Chilcote family, who had? served Chilcote's father and Tjcrandfather before him. Brock knows that drink and morphia are the cause of the trouble, So far probability Buffers no undue tension. But when it conies to the impersonation of the morphomaniac in Parliament, and even in his home and his relations with his wife, by John Loder, a cousin turned up from Canada, then the strain is more than tense: it snaps. The House of Commons might be deceived, but a woman married six years to any man would not live in a house 14 minutes, let alone. 14 dayß, with one who was not husband yet believing him to be so. But in drama it is not the cause but the effect that matters. Feeling is first on the stage, reflection remotely second. Pure reaspn may be found somewhere in the draughty coulisses of the theatre, but; she does not show herself in "The Masquerader," except in respect to the cause and effects of the drug habit. Mr. Post, in doubling the parts of the wholesome, breezy Canadian, John Lo'.«r, and the besotted Chilcote, essayed a heroic dramatic feat. In witnessing Mr. Post's rapid and effective changes the memory persisted in recalling th.; classic precedent of "The Lyons Mail"; but.in this play "The Masquerader,' Mr. Post was dealing with practically contemporary life, so that he could not take advantage of his audience being unfamiliar with men and manners of times not thenown. He imparted the idea that he had made a careful study of the pathological effects of morphia, or similar drugs, upon their addicts in the later and final stages, for he was terribly realistic in-scenes ot great power recalling the late Charles Warner in '.'Drink." Not only was the presentation of both Chilcote and Loder a masterpiece of dramatic art, but it is reasonable to assume it imposed a great physical and nervous strain upon- Mr. Post. The applause was (for Wellington) unusually noisy; in fact, it.took the form of cheering as well as clapping and stamping with the feet. Mr. Post so profoundly impressed his audience that it was doubtful whether the demonstration was in approval of his art or merely relief of emotions from extreme pressure; probably it was both. Mr. Post played the part of Loder in a lower key than that of Chilcote, and the latter was startling in its colouring. Now the conventions of the British drama require overemphasis. It has no place for the "Penny plain" (and these, by the way, were printed plain only because they were" intended to be coloured),-but it does insist upon the "twopence coloured, rich blues, greens, crimsons, yellows, and purples, and sometune* with scintillant touches. Eeal .life is not just quite like that, and no one knows it better than Mr./ Post. So, then, clover little Cecil Haiues (to many she isstillthe wonderchild who recited "A Trip to Blackpool ). as Robbihs, a little London maul-of-all-work, designedly exaggerated her stageCockney speech, but her devotion to Loer the writer was genuine, unforced, true to life. Mr. Winnington Barnes, as Brock, Chilcote's man, was a great piece of work, looked at from any angle, not in the least overdone. Miss Eileen Sparkes, as Eve Chilcote, the wife of the morphomauiac, was likewise admirable, and all she was required to be, charming, faithful, trusting, enduring, hopeful, and vet true to her sex. It was not easy to see why Lady Astrupp is introduced into the play at all. True she flirts with Chilcote, and exercises a malign influence over him through shafing his drug taking, but >;he is rather like a cinema character. Miss Jean Athol handled this difficult part with commendable skill. Utner parts were capably cast, but call for no particular mention, except that the sunness of a Chilcote footman m hverv was played rather as a theatre audience expects than as footmen in real life carry themselves. "The Masquerader will be played to-night and every night this week up to and including Jnday. It is necessary to be well in time,, for it is a long play, and the curtain rises on. the prologue at 7.55.