"MADAME PLAYS NAP."

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 48, 27 February 1933, Page 3

"MADAME PLAYS NAP."

After a highly successful tour of New Zealand, Dame Sybil Thorndike and" her specially selected English company, which has been brought to New Zealand by the enterprise of J. C. Williamson, Limited, will play a short return season at the Grand Opera House, performances being given on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, March, 2, 3, and 4. The play selected for presentation Is "Madame Plays Nap," one of the most hilarious comedies in the world. ' As Madame Henriette de Beauvais, Dame Sybil Thorndike is said to give a characterisation which, once seen, is not likely soon to be forgotten. The period is the seventeenth century, and the scene the Court of. Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French. The plot unfolds the intrigues of the day for place and power and social advancement. Onco Madamo Henrlette befriended the great Napoleon. Now she is endeavouring to recall to his memory that incident. Failure to succeed in her attempt would mean her ruin socially, for the whole pack has set on her to drive her from the Court. The shifts and fancies she Tesorts to to place herself conspicuously before Napoleon and to arouse his sense of obligation to her, and the witty dialogue, keep the audience in roars of laughter. Eaten up with the sense of his own importance, Napoleon for some time scarcely understands tne significance of Madame's actions and sayings. When, however, he is made to understand that there is a plot on foot to drive Madame from the Court and he remembers what she once did for him he is not slow to act and Madame wins all along the line. Dame Sybil is very fortunate in having in the- character of TCapoleon her husband. Lewis Casson, who is also tlie producer of the play. J -At a matinee performance on Friday afternoon, March 3, Dame Sybil and her company will play "The I Medea" of Euripides, the greatest of the old Greek tragedies.