MISS KATHLENE MACDONELL

Evening Star, Issue 16848, 25 September 1918, Page 6

MISS KATHLENE MACDONELL

AND 2.ER CHAS- WALDRON

IX A MODERN EMOTIONAL. DRAMA-

The reappearance last night, at His Majesty's Theatre, of Miss Katblene MaoDonell and Mr Claries Waldron, who stirred ire in ' Daddy Longiegs' a little over a year aao. was eagerly welcomed bj a large audience, who followed with a* cumulating interest the presentation oi Edward Sheldon's famous drama ' Romance.' After seeing the work it is easy to understand its popularity. It is a beantJfal play when dressed and mounted adequate.lv, as we now have it. It is also very skilful in plan and development, with no pretence of •'cleverness," and no straining for points, but making its appeal by setting forth, with frankness combined with tact, lhe story of a grand, passion as it may and dees influence people of the world. It is of the earth, earthy ; not in: the domain of the demi-gods, yet not in any sense ignoble- We have in it the emotion of 'Camille' without the agony that Dumas thought necessary; tho romance of 'The Lady of Lyons' shorn of Lytton's stiltedness; the acute pathos of ' East Lynne' wtih the ma.wkishness and sadness sifted away. Handled by a less able playwright, the theme of ' Romance' might have "turned to grossness, but Mr Sheldon steers clear of that error. _ And amount the many affirmative merits of his play we note its admirable proportioning, in "(riving the central figrrre.s due prominence and assigning to the secondary characters their proper place. The work is one that, would stand the severest criticism. Though tho motif is as old as Adam and Eve, the tale is told with freshness and originality. There is a prologue in which an Anglican bishop, sitting in his study in New York, listens, to what his granddaughter and bis grandson have to say concerning Harry's intention to marry an actress. They imagine that he will object, and they ask his consent. Susan adopts the coaxing method ; Harry, with a cubhish and surly sort of air, tells the old gentleman that, though he doubtless had wmo soit of affair when young, it was quite different from the one immediately in hand. Thereupon the bishop commands Harry to sit and listen to an old romance. That is the nmlogue. It ends in the middle of a ■sentence. As the curtain falls one hears tho playing of a ]K>lka in a, distant room, and when the curtain rises auain we are in the bishop's story as it is continued in actini>- form and becomes the play. Thooreticnily there is no break. The bishop's opening sentences in the epilogue are supposed to merge, after tho dissolving-view fashion, into the talk of the guests at a party in the house of one Cornelius Van Ttiyl in the days when the bishop was the boyish rector of St. Giles, r.-ast, night this illusion failed in a sense because" of the somewhat lengthv pausewith the curtain down, this freeing tho audience to talk, and through this talking somebodv at tho back could be heard giving stage orders in a high voice. The discontinuity mav perhaps he overcome in some me s:jrc at the other performances. ]t was the onlv hitch in an. otherwise most complete presentation of a very fine play. The bishop's romance, told for Harry s guidance, concerns his relationships with Margherita Cavallini, a celebrated Italian prima donna. When the bishop was a, rector he met her at the house of \ an. Tuyl, h«r protector. Van Tuyl is growing old, according to his own account, and wondering whether his association with Margherita will last much longer. The rector becomes fascinated with the fair singer, arid she, in turn, after poking fun at him, falls in love. The rector, anxious to set matters on a straight footing, induces Margherita to confess to certain -lips, and he freely condones everything in her adventurous past, even getting over his horror at her declaration that serious love is "a beast-—a hungering for flesh"! hut he is at the end of his resources when he learns of the true relation in which she .and Van Tuyl have stood to one another, and the difficulty is not overcome gherii;* completely discards Van Tuyl. Subsequently, after much mutual misery, the rector visits Margherita in order to persuade her to throw up all her past associations and marry him, and live the life according to rule, in the midst of bis pleading his passion overcomes him, and he avows that he is ready to go tc the devil with her. Then the nobility oi the true woman inherent in her comes to the front and settles tha problem. She sees that he is prepared to wreck himself for her. and she will not. allow it, so they part, he to eventually marry Van Tuyl'a daughter and settle down to the dignity of a bishop, she to retire into private life and spend her days in charitable work. There is very much more in the nlay than this, but the outline may suffice.

The arfnt part is the one undertaken by Miss MacTfonell. It is the greatest of her parts &o far disclosed to Dunedin. Physically she effects a metamorphosis. Dressed iii the long flounced and crinolined frock? o; oO years ago, with hair done up in stiff braids', she is charmingly distinguished from any previous presentations, and in gait and gesture she very skilfully brines to mind the famous beauties of her period. As to her speech, the foreigner's English that ahe so prettily afTa'-ts is just a trifle tc-o perfect, in this sense : that it comes ' frr.m her so fast ihaf at first it is a lit t]<? difficult to follow with the ear. Quickly,' hov-ever, the audience got used to this, and after th« very ea-ly soenos they werd able, to take in till she paid, being largely assisted bv th«* eloquent use of her hands. The etudv is in all ways a- very complete one. .Miss MaeDonell is not content to portray merely the cosmopolitan foreigner, hut she (jives ns distinctively the Itnlvm way? and manners, and her great power in emotion, in sudden grists of passion, ia inurvelloiis. We eonrjratnl.nte her on a triumphant success. Mr Waldron has a difficult part as the rector. He also is full of fire, but it is partially hidden by his English reeve and the habits of his priestly office. Mr Waldron cleverly shows these influences, and voluntarily allows them to, ns it were, put him in the second place for the time being. Maybe, also—but this suggestion is not pressed—ha sees that the crcnlcst artistic efrccte are to be gamed for the presentation as a whole by his refraining from any competition for the lead. Viewed in any v.-ay, .Air Waldron docs well, and we thank him. Mr Roy Redgrave, as Yan Tuyl, also pleased the many present who remembered his Mercntio and Aubrey Tanqucray, and expected pood acting from him. His stage knowledge was a great help. Other members of the company who deserve special thanks ar« Miss Audrey Worth for her pretty acting as Susan ; Miss Bervl Bryant, who gives a delightful little sket'eh of Van Tuyl's daughter; Miss Millie Englcr. whose impersonation of the tiring maid came in for praise ; Miss Emma Temple, who ba-s a brief but important part as the re-tor's annt and Mr Kenneth Brampton, who has a few very effective lines. But the work of the company as a whole is distinctly sati'factorv.

'Romance' is to be. repeated this even'

The manaTe.mPTit. !n comn7ianc<» vntb manr bare ajyreed to 'Pvicast' on *f onday. the final night of the season.