“FORGOTTEN”

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXII, Issue 8902, 19 September 1889, Page 3

“ FORGOTTEN ”

Miss Genevieve Ward has evidently made a hit in her new part. An English paper says:— forgotten, the new play produced upon a recent occasion at the Grand Theatre by Miss Genevieve Ward, is not another Forget-nie-Not, and will hardly fill the pls.ce left vacant in the actress’* repertoire when her rights in Messrs Grove and Merivale’s striking drama expire. But it is a clevei and effective piece of stagework, decidedly superior in originality 0£ design and adroitness of execution to ninetenths of the new plays that come under one’s notice in London. Its author, Mr P. P. Moore, has deliberately sought to provide Miss Ward with a fresh character specially suited to her strongly marked method of ironical expression and halfrepressed emotional appeal. To this end he illustrates with no small skill the bitter reseutement of a woman who, having waited years for her absent lover, finds on his return that be does not even recognise her, and that with every wish to remain faithful to his early vows, hie real feeling for her, is merely that of one middle-aged friend for another. The chance meeting with a pretty girl on the homeward-bound steamer has made more impression upon the heart of Arthur Glare, the great African explorer, than can be caused by the tenderest welcome from the woman whom he left a sweetheart, and whom he now greets simply as a valued acquaintance. It is hard for Miss Mowbray, with all her self-command, to bear; but she bears it bravely, letting nothing more than veiled sarcasm betray her even when accident consigns to her charge her youthful rival, Grace Hargrove. The chance, however, which has brought the girl to Miss Mowbray’s house—and which constitutes one of the weaknesses of a highly artificial plot—also'places before her the prospect of a speedy revenge for the one wrong’ which a woman never forgives. She know* what is known to neither of the others—that Grace’s father is now suffering penal servitude for the murder of Clare’s brother; and the means by which the hideous secret has been kept from those whom it so nearly concerns are plausible, if not wholly convincing. The situation thus becomes ono of exciting tension, especially when, in a vigorously written scene with her recreantlover, the heroine bitterly reproaches him, not only for his faithlessness, but for his fatuous blindness in fancying hi* offence forgiven or ignored. Towards the close of this telling passage of arms the well-controlled passion breaks away in the direction of melodrama, and is in consequence somewhat vulgarised. But this is not the fault of Miss Ward, who indicate* with admirable by-play and intonation the smouldering fire of anger at length breaking against her will into flame. How the resentful woman makes use of her power, how her exercise of its results in her temporary humiliation, and how in the end two successive identifications of the murderer prove erroneous, need not be discussed at length. The last act does not fulfil the promise of its predecessors, and suggests that Mr Moore has still a good deal to learn in the way of reasonable construction. But, on the whole, the merits of Forgotten certainly outweigh its defects, and deserve appreciation more discriminating than that of the audience which persistently laughed in the wrong places, and noisily applauded where applause was ridiculous. Miss Ward was moderately well supported in her highlyfinished impersonation by Mr Vernon, who is always a “ safe ” actor, even where, as in the roZe of the unfaithful lover, he i* not exactly at home. The rest of the cast, says the “ St James* Gazette,” is decidedly weak, with the exception of Miss Jlobins, who plays the part of Grace Hargrove much better than she dresses it.