"MR. PIM" ACCLAIMED

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 55, 8 March 1929, Page 5

"MR. PIM" ACCLAIMED

ENTHUSIASTIC AUDIENCE

There is only one "llr. Pirn" on the comedy stage, and only one actor who can play the part as well as Mr. Dion Bouei- I canlt; that .actor, is Mr. Dion Boucicault. I Consequently it was fitting that the first production (this season) of Mr. A. A. Milne's unique comedy should be postponed from Wednesday night till last night, in order to cunblc its chief exponent to recover sufficiently from indisposition to give the impersonation that theatregoers have learned to love. A reappearance after illness, combined with the prospect that the farewell this time is a long one, were sufficient to lend eclat to the occasion, and there was evident sincerity in the ovation which the large audience in the Grand Opera House last evening gave to Miss Vanbrugh, Mr. Boucicault, and the other members of a talented company. The names Vanbrugh and Boucicault mean much to the legitimate stage, and from the 'eighties onward the latter name (handed down from a playwrightactor father to a player-producer son) has meant more than much to New Zealand and Australia. There must have been present last evening some who can look back along the long line of the two generations of Boucicault, and see how much the stage in this quarter of the world owes to them. Where are the .Boucicaults ot the future—will the legitimate stage rear _ them, or will it (as David Wark Cirimth says) be dead in five years, killed by the vocalised "movies"? Whether it die or live, never did it have more need ot champions—of outstanding characterisations like Pirn, and of artists who can get inside them. Lest anybody has forgotten, let it be recalled that Mr. Pirn has been thrust by kindly but unrelenting age into a little half-world of his own, where his mental vibrations are so much slower than other people's that they can hardly attune themselves to him, yet his charm and his super-mundane' detachment are such as win love and respect. Through all Ins comedy of errors, memory-faults, etc., only once, from one of the youngest characters, are heard the words "silly ass, and, by sounding like profanity, they serve the playwright's 'purpose of putting the mental limitations of age on the pedestal of reverence to which they are entitled. The consequences of Mr. 1»n s principal error (a confusion of names) are serious in that Olivia Marden UVliss Irene Vanbrugh) thinks that her first husband has come to life a»ain or at any rate was alive after the date of her second marriage; wherefore she and her husband, George Marden (Mr. J. B. Eowe), are not married and must marry again. Hut as this mortifying situation (obliterated when Mr. Pirn's memory recovers) enables Olivia to dictate to George terms ot remarriage (such terms including her husbands abandonment of opposition to Ins niece's betrothal to a penniless young artist) Mr. Pirn is really a luck-bringer! J-he high-water mark of Mr. Boucicault's acting is seen iv such simple every-day transactions as the mistaking of a hat Miss Vanbrugh, too, has exceptional opportunities as Olivia,-and her manipulation of the hated, multi-coloured curtains (her husband s aversion) will remain as a fragrant memory of a very human and charming performance. Admiration of young Miss Rowena Ronald grows with each successive picture she is called on to give and the confiding romp Dinah, lover of both old and young, is one of her best. Mr. J. B Rowe, as .the convention-loving George' Afarden, very nearly succeeds in making what is 'right" the equivalent of what is hateful, and thus presents Olivia with her best scoring points, which, from the playwright s point of view, is the husband's principal purpose. Mr-, fionald Ward had a congenial part as the young penniless lover (an nrtist this time, not a poet) and seconded well the vivacious Dinah. Miss -'\nnie Saker was the relentless aunt, and Miss Eileen Morris was Anne. There was much applause of the principals at fall ot curtain. "Mr. Pirn Passes By" will be repeated to-night, and will conclude the season to-morrow night.