"THE TRIAL OF MARY DUGAN"

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6676, 1 August 1928, Page 2

"THE TRIAL OF MARY DUGAN"

://The trial of Mary Dugan” which opens at tho Opera House on Saturday next takes, tho audience to the inside of an American Court-house, and will have additional cause to maintain a deep interest in this drama, for they are actually the jury. The author of the play has broken clean away from tradition ■ Of "sfdging. There is ..go;",curtain 'and no orchestra. As patrcHl'a^ento^^,the■■theatre, : the 'curtain is 1 already'u^ : and- on-tho 1 stage*is a. Gourtacene. take their places, , and the audience settle , back to give a verdict in-Aceordanco with the evidence and tho value of the pleading of counsel. Who is tho murderer? Did Mary D,ugan kill the man whose’mistress’. ”shb, was? These' are the, questions-, at issue; The evidence pointing /-to. ~Mary;.p.ugan Jseems -.cqn* ciii'sivO; ’ He jvas found- dead in her fiat with-; a knife vvhen .Moiy-is.-brbfhery a young lawyer, comes ;o.n Jhg scenes and takes a hand in. affairs 'is. villainyunmasked.. .-’'He tears..'the. specious ’'arguments,/of -the prosecuting attorney to shreds; he cross-examines with, s, Meticulous pare and. gpoak cloyerneasA He leads .Mary in ; examination:- -with .sympathy , aid tact, until “tho truth, the whole truth, and: ftpthingiibiit . the truth : .comes cut, - apd the jury ■ are compelled to r.cqmfc :, Leon Gordon, whose - acting ih ‘‘White Cargo” was such a,ravola-rioh-to’ Dominion 'audiences,is .yet more splendid ns tho Prosecuting Atfcorneyi-,' Miss May Collins, making her first appearance in Palmerston,, is said tb ; beySt fascinating Mary Dugan. The other,''members of i the cast all _ give substantial support to the principals. The pjav was a huge success in Sydney and' Melbourne-'' A loading critic says,-^tfft ! - is the • Whrld’s most sensational, dramatic success. It . is differ-

cat from anything over staged before. It is a throbbing, tremendous life drama—a dramatic novelty that has taken World by- storm.” H The box 'plans open' Thursday morning at the Opera Ifous&H