MISS RENEE KELLY

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 125, 31 May 1927, Page 6

MISS RENEE KELLY

IN "THE LAST OF MRS. CHENEY"

New Zealand cannot complain of want o£ theatrical enterprise in the presentations like "The Last of Mrs. Cheney." It is one of the latest of London successes, and here it is, 13,000 mileg away. In many respects the play was produced and ao|ed at the Grand Opera House in a manner and on a scale, that left so little" to find £ -.ult with as to be not worth mention. Logic and truth, have nothing or very little to do with the plot of "The Lost of Mrs. Cheney." The success of the play in London wan.largely due to the attractive personalities and consummate art of JMisg Gladyß Cooper and Mr. Gerald dv Maurier, and because the public rather like* being foolod to the top of its bent; Mr. Lonsdale, who wrote the play, knows all this: —and he would probably have been gratified by the manner in which Miss Renec Kelly and Mr. Ellis Irving, at the Opera House last night,, approached the respective parts of Mrs. Cheney and Lord, Dilling. Mr. Lonsdale knows what the public wants, at any rate he often happens to hit upon -what it wants. Amonp: its requirements in. a play of this kind is a bedroom scene; it likes to look upon pyjamas and peignoirs: and it also like* the spectacle of a strong man trying to; overcome a resisting woman —it gloats over cave-man stuff. The skill of the writer-of "The Last of Mrs. Cheney" is seen in masking the' absurdity of big pi° v y a wealth of decoration a kind ot theatrical roccoco which rarely fails to please, but which not every playwright knows how to apply. Here is a yoSig shop girl, taken from a Clapham environnient, to be the tool of a gang of cßpoks, in the same sort of way as a jemmy or ratchet brace would be taken—and she [g as potent yet as sinless as those impl.v ments in a burglar's outfit. Virginal in ideal aad in fact, this alias Mrs. Cheney sets up an establishment in London and passes off as a rich Australian widow. She has aspirations to meet "the best people," which, by inference, are not met with in Uaphara Ihe crooks, headed by Charles (Mr. Hylton Allen) pose as her servants and are successful in deceiving her victims and, ultimately theirs. Charles, by the way, was educated-at least he "went there he says—at Eton and Oxford He is a polite, suave, plausible leader of the j gang, and successfully eludes embarrassing personal questions. Mrs. Ebley (Miss Lmma Temple) a dear old l«dy who with others "took Mrs. Cheney up/in a social least ±,20,000. These gems the Kane is determined to^steal, and, Mrs. Chenef £ funk it, to the mortification of the ganc Her reason to the crooks, as to the audiW« "?5. ear" BJ My- Why? Because she loves 'these dear people," the upper classes into whose society this U>r Kttle but adroit shop gil \ turned thief finds herself admitted on terms of equality No wonder the unscrupulous but sententious Charles exclaima early in the -.lay: "My dear George, the selfishness of the upper classes is only excelled by the snobmshness of the middle and lower classes " at« Th Y£r eneyi altho«gn she fascinates Lord Dilhng, does not quite- deceive him, nor does Charles for that matter, so his Lordship suspects: the pearl robbery fcy?'b-ia plans well, detects Mrs. Cheney" and then makes what one calls in Police S^k rt P°ltß- °ertain P^Poß*!*" to her which she rejects with fine scorn, rings L h? 1?*?* the house ' confesses hS premeditated crime, but says nothing of killings outrageous intentions, leaving him to speak for himself. That doesn't quite end all. Lord Elton, a pompous middleaged ass, also fell in love with Mrs Cheney, most imprudently and most improbably wrote her a proposal of marnege, and in it said some astonishing candKl things about the women who took Mrs. Cheney up, and those things were true «. 13. all Very well to talk prosecuting Charles and his confederate, Mrs. Cheney, bur what about the awful letter? Well a cheque for £10,000 is drawn out and offered as its price, only to be taken and then torn to pieces in a scornful scene, the curtain,falling on a stage emptied of futile people, all but Lord Dilling and Mrs. Cheney, who astonish the audience by their mutual agreement on one point, and leave it stupified by that point's gross improbability.

Nothing but praise can be given for the excellent acting in the difficult role assumed by Miss Kelly.. She had the peat advantage, too, of being supported by a highly capable and intelligent'cast, one recalling those palmy days of BroughBoucicault—and strange td say, including a member of the company which bore this hyphenated title, namely, Miss Emma Temple. Mr. Irying's presentation of Lord Dilling was admirable. Mr. Victor as Lord Elton gave a remarkably clever character study. The other characters were competently represented by all ladies and gentlemen in the cast. No opportunity should be missed of seeing the finished work in "The Last of Mrs. Cheney" during its very brief season in Wellington, It will be repeated this evening.