THEATRE ROYAL.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVIII, Issue 11462, 28 December 1897, Page 5

THEATRE ROYAL.

A YORKSHIRE LASS. The Inman Dramatic Company com- , menced a season last night at the Theatre Royal with A Yorkshire, play, which is described as a now and original domestic drama, is fresh to theatre-goers in Christchurch, but it cannot be said that it is highly original. Still, most of the situations, though possessing a flavour of" respectable antiquity, are telling, and they certainly appeared to have an exhilarating effect upon the large audience. The opening scene is laid in a fishing village near Whitby, in Yorkshire. Here the hero. Jack Selwyn, a son of General •Selwyn, while on a cruise in his yacht, meets the heroine. Faith Oxtoby, a daughter of the captain of the local coastguard. The pair fall in love with one another, but as Faith has promised to marry one Steve Milson, a fisherman, sheattempts to stifle her attachment forSelwyn. .The latter’s cousin. Captain Stewart Digby, however, wishes Selwyn to marry beneath him, so that he may incur the displeasure of his father and be disinherited. Digby therefore manages so that Milson is wrongly charged with murdering Faith’s father in an affray between the coastguardsmen and the smugglers, and is sentenced to five years’penal servitude. This enables Jack tomarry Faith. General Selwyn thereupon, as Captain Digby has hoped, cuts his son off with the proverbial shilling, and as, eighteen months later, the lastnamed, besides being in desperate straits for money, is charged by his wife with having conspired with Digby to ruin Milson, he decides to enlist in the army. The Crimean war has just commenced, and the leading characters find their way to the British camp outside Sebastopol. Here Jack and his wife are still pursued by his villainous cousin and a female accomplice, who succeed in making the authorities believe that the pair are spies. A providential night attack on the British lines enables Jack to escape punishment by falling while fighting. He is taken prisoner, but reappears in England just when his innocence has been proved. Mr Robert Inman plays the part of Jack Selwyn intelligently, and Miss Maud Appleton infuses a certain amount of feeling into the character of Faith Oxtoby. Mr Scott Leighton, although at times a trifle stagey, gives, on the whole, a careful representation of Captain Digby, and Messrs Charles Saunders and Newton Carroll accomplish satisfactory work respectively as the Captain of the Coastguard and as Maurice Thorne, a somewhat effeminate light cavalryman. Miss Alice May as Kate Grantley, a friend of Faith’s, is bright and charming, and Mr Alec Alves is fairly good as General Selwyn. Mr Harry Hodson displays some dramatic ability as Steve Milson, while Miss May Granville, as Digby’s accomplice—a French adventuress —is moderately convincing. The humorous portion of the play is provided by Miss Gertrude Esdaille as a general servant, and Mr T. Edmond Leonard, who, in a variety of characters, shows that he can sing as well as act. The minor parts are capably filled, and the scenery and incidental music are effective. A Yorkshire Lass will be repeated to-night.