"TEN MINUTE ALIBI"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22010, 17 January 1935, Page 12

"TEN MINUTE ALIBI"

. "Ten Minute Alibi," which is to be presented for the first time in New Zealand at His Majesty's Theatre on Saturday afternoon and evening, is one of the most genuinely intriguing plays to have been presented on the JEnglishspeaking stage. The play is most unusual in construction and bristles with problems and suspense. The audience remains mystified until a moment or two beforo the final curtain. Colin Derwent, played by the popular English accor George Thirlwell, commits a murder in full view of the audience. So despicable a character is the man who is killed that most of the audience sympathise with the murderer from the beginning. "So sympathetic were the audience," wrote a Sydney critic, "that when the murderer dropped his handkerchief and seemed to be providing a certain clue, but suddenly noticed and pocketed it, there were exclamations of relief and an outburst of applause. There was tension during the gruelling examination of Derwent by detectives, who were morally certain that he was guilty, but were as anxious as the audience. not to prove it. They made no concealment between themselves when they failed to s'hake his perfect alibi —or so nearly perfect that the detectives could not fault it." Booking arrangements are advertised.