TIGAR-CAT WIVES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XX, Issue 2063, 6 January 1925, Page 2

TIGAR-CAT WIVES.

] have sometimes been asked why I accepted a part so unsympathetic as that of Suzanne in "Tiger Cats" (writes tho brilliant Edith Evan?, whose acting in the play mentioned is ronkiii" blase -Londoner* "sit. up and inke notice">. Well, there are t\v<i i-ensons—»he first is that the part is vei«V difficult to act, and a part that is difficult to act is always a great temptation to an actress. The second is that the play deals with a phase of modem life which T think is rather interesting. Suzanne married a brilliant, highlysiiung man. a famous professor, and proceeded to make ids life a torment. Why? Because she was a "liger cat." . She was a beautiful woman, but smeared only for the material things in life. She wanted plenty of pretty clothes and any amount of admiration She despised her husband's work and told him so ; her own time was wholly occupied in the pursuit of pleasure. As I see it, Suzanne stands for tho worst type of modern woman, the gieedv. soulless woman who preys upon men. " And tho fact that she married a brilliant man is also true to life, since it is often tho sensitive, clever men who fall into the clutches of the "tiger cats." , All I can say in favour of Suzanne; s character is that there is a certain bigness about it. When she does go wrong there are no half-measures about her; tho trouble is she's only an animal woman without brains. If she had biuins what a fine woman she would However, being as she is, buzanne goads her husband td temporary macV ness, and he shoots her. But she does not die ; tiger cats don't die easily. Official inquiries into the shooting follow ; the husband, gets off and comes i to Suzanne's feet, confessing that he has always loved her. The tiger-cat ! wife says she loves him, and we are I left to picture the ill-assorted couple turning over a new leaf of domestic happiness. Personally, J have my doubts as to that, happiness, and I believe the audience have, too. At any rate, a friend of mine who was in front one night told me that as the curtain wont down upon Suzanne's triumph there was one general exclamation), from the women all round. And, that exclamation was: "Beast."

As regards the professor, one must remember that the piny is not English, and that on the Continent professors receive as much hero-worship as—shall we say—film stars or footballers do over here and in America. There is only one little trap in the iictual playing of "Tiger Cats," and playing of "Tiger Cats," and that comes when I am shot. The French furniture is rather hard and spiky, and I sometimes bruise myself in making mv hist fall across the arm of the sofa Mv Wontner cut his hand one evening in this same scene where he has to" grip the furniture convulsively, while trying to resist the temptation to shoot'his "tiger eat." I have already said that 1 doubt the future happiness of the professor and Suzanne, which we arc left to imagine at the end of the play. Rather do 1 agree with the wittily-expressed view of the critic whu summed up thenprospects thus: — "What's before that couple, happiness? No. In a month the professor will be practising to shoot straight!" One curious fact about the play is this: Although we are getting goad houses, and although the play is a success, its final reception is generally—for a few seconds—silence. _ Perhaps that is a. compliment; I think it is. Has the perfomance set the people thinking? Are some of them thinking of tiger-cat wives they have known? I expect they are!