"THE OUTSIDER."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19086, 3 August 1925, Page 11

"THE OUTSIDER."

MQSCOVI7CH SEASON OPENS, SUCCESSFUL PRODUCTION. The first appearance in Auckland of the Russian actor, Maurice Moscovitch, besides being an enjoyable experience for the audience, must have been completely satisfying to the actor himself, for a packed house on Saturday evening gave him generously to understand its appreciation of a sterling performance. His impetuous Alton, Ragatzy was a memorable piece of work, demanding; all the fiery nerve and energy of an exotic taßte, and a subtle insight into the complexities of a somewhat remarkable stage character. Anton Ragatzy *is the central figure in Dorothy Brandon's play, The Outsider" —a drama of modern authorship and application, well built and logically pieced together. The story of a " quack" doctor, whose in bloodless surgery have won him the devotion of many relieved sufferers, and whose unorthodox practices and lack of etiquette have earned him the condemnation of the Koyal College of Surgeons, paves the way for a very human sequence when the " Outsider," as \ he is contemptuously called, achieves a remarkable cure in the cane of the crippled daughter of the greatest scoffer of them all. ' Although the play does not shrink from heaping ridicule on a famous body of professional men, it yet refrains from depicting Ragatzy in the colours of god-liko integrity. He may sneer at the medical degree and deride the idea of " spending four or five years learning the Greek and Latin names of English' bones," but he makes no secret of his "commercialism, and he does not hesitate to use an impoverished cripplo as a catspaw. But it is the curious .mixture of nobility and churlishness, gentleness and roughness, that lifts the character- out of the commonplace. Without these faults—without his delicious conceit and disregard for the conventional —the perfection of the man would be intolerable and the play would descend to the mediocre. As it is, Ragatzy is a unique study in complexes—& presentment of human virtues and weakness that exercise a never-flagging intermit on a ;; half-puzzled audience. Upon another character, too, the author has cast the dissecting light of a realistic outlook on life and that is the character of Lalage Sturdee, the, young woman, crippled from birth,-whose- recovery is deemed hopeless. , Here is sketched a pathetic figure—a woman of brilliant musical attainments, intensely passionate in nature, yet shunned bv men because of her physical disability. Invested with .the romantic touch of the author's pen, it is a figure that ; would command sympathy and appeal even without the intervention of several frank and impassioned outbursts. These are happily episodic, 'jnd al) emotionalism in tits play is deftly restrained, the curtain falling on tensr) silences ratlies than on " smashing climaxes." Mr. Moscovitch is a sound actor who < owes much of Ms success to a very impelling personality. It is a personality tha.t dominates all others on tho stage with him and penetrates to every part of tho house. Possessed of a rich voice and tho melodious expression which a foreign tongue so often lends to English words, ne commands evory ear,- while every eye is held by the magnetic force that, seems to obtrude at times in his compelling countenance and in his movements that so vividly denote strength. The absence of extremes in declamation and a felicity of gesture contributed largely to the artistic effect, and had no small part in building up the triumph which had to be acknowledged by a series of enthusiastic curtains at 'the close of the performance. Miss Jean Robertson made the role of Lalage Sturdee a very living one indeed. In conversation, in moments of tenderness and despair, and in the posturing that the temperament of the character called for, she was equal to them all, and sharedwith Mr. Moscovitch tho honours, of the evening. Of the supporting cast Mr. Nat Madison stood out in an excellent little j sketch of the studiously-inclined young doctor <who alone admitted his helplessness before tho genius of Ragatzy. Modest though the role was, it was touched with the hand of restraint and humour. Mr. G. Kay Souper was also seen in a comparatively minor role as fho girl's father, while Mir. Basil Bowen had the uninspiring task of portraying life weak lover. Miss Eileen Sparks Wept and pleaded realistically as Madame Klost, and the remaining roles were in the hands of Miss Marie Eaton and Messrs. Arthur GTreenaway, laFf McLean and H. Mackenzle-Rcgan. "The Outsider" will bo repeated until Saturday, when " The Great Lover" will be substituted.