ENGLISH THEATRICAL NOTES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1756, 1 November 1905, Page 13

ENGLISH THEATRICAL NOTES.

(From Our Special Correspondent.)

LONDON, Sept. 15. f THB PRODIGAL SON.” For once in a while the unexpected has not happened. Everyone predicted success for “The Prodigal Son,” and it is now becoming apparent that everyone will prove right. Mr Hall Caine's play is “drawing the whole town,” and seems likely to co'iitimie to do so until the Christmas pantomime replaces it on the stage of Old Drury. “The Prodigal Son,” as a melodrama making a direct and powerful appeal to the emotions, finding interpretation at the hands of a very strong cast, and benefiting by the lavish staging for which Drury Lane is famous, was bound to achieve a widespread popularity. And judged as melodrama, it certainly deserves all the success for which playwright and manager have made so bold a bid. The stoiy of the play follows closely the lines of Mr Hall Caine’s novel. One may infer, from the mammoth circulation which the book has attained, that everybody has read it by now, and that it will therefore noc be necessary to outline the story at any length. Oscar Stephensson, the central figure in this Icelandic romance, is one of those weak, amiable people who contrive, with the best intentions in the world, to ruin other people’s lives and cause no end of pain and misery. He returns to Iceland in time to win the love of Thora Neilson, who was on the point of marrying Oscar’s brother Magnus. The discovery that Thora does not love him is a staggering surprise to Magnus, who loves Thora passionately; but, after a great struggle, he determines to give her up to Oscar, thus deciding in favour of the girl’s happiness against his own. Oscar offers to take the place which Magnus refuses, and to marry Thora, and his offer is accepted. A year has passed when the curtain rises on the second act. and the scene is Government House, Iceland, the home of the Governor-General, father of Oscar and Alagnns. In the meantime Oscar and Thora have been married and have had a long honeymoon abroad. Much has happened in the interval; Oscar has fallen under the spell of Thora’s sister Helga, and to - pay that young lady’s gambling debts at Nice has forged his father’s name to a note of hand. When Thora discovers that her lover has been lured away from her by Helga, even as she herself was lured away from Magnus, she dies of a broken heart, after giving birth to a daughter. Oscar’s forgeries are discovered by his father, and “the prodigal son” is banished from Iceland in utter disgrace. Thus passes the second act.

In the third comes the great Casino scene, where Oscar, sunk to the lowest depths of degradation, cut off from every tie of home and friends and love, gambles recklessly at the tables, and even seeks to retrieve his losses by cheating with the cards. Too late, when all is lost, he is seized with a pasion of remorse, and renounces for ever liis evil genius, Helga. Ten years are supposed to have passed when the curtain rises on the fourth act. Oscar, under the assumed name of Christianson, returns to his old home to find his father dead, and his brother a bankrupt, broken down by the debt incurred in meeting the prodigal’s forged bill. Oscar’s infant child has grown into a beautiful young maiden, and to her the stranger gives a pocket-book containing the fortune he has made as a musician during the past ten years. Not till after his departure does it become known that the stranger was Oscar Stephensson. The fourth act culminates in a tableau depicting the repentant prodigal’s departure. He stands on the mountain side, looking down upon the village in the valley, and listening, with a smile upon his careworn face, to the ringing of the church bells. He has made reparation, and has found comfort in his penitence. Here the author’s story ends, but Mr Collins has added two further tableaux of great beauty, depicting the return and pardon of the prodigal. The play owes much to its magnificent staging, much also, to the masterly acting of Mr George Alexander as Oscar and Air Frank Cooper as the brother Alagnus; and Miss Lily Hall Caine and the remainder of the cast can all claim a share in an achievement which must take high rank even in the famous annals of Old Drury. NEW MUSICAL PLAYS. Of the two new musical plays presented to London during the past fortnight one might reasonably expect to see the Criterion production last the longer. “The White Chrysanthemum” like “Veronique” boasts, at least a definite plot, but the “Bine Moon” which at present fills the Lyric bill is a mere jumble of ditty, dance, spectacle and patter accompanied by music which is mainly reminiscent. The “play” has six authors, and it has certainly been a case of “too many cooks, etc.” The production is “pretty” but it is altogether pointless, and the actors and actresses in it have a hard job to make what “f-at” there i 9 in. the piece go round once. Yet the story such as it is, lends itself to a display of the glamour of diaphonously, if gorgeously draped feminine charms, and these combined with catoh.y song© and “patter” that will no doubt improve as time goes on will probably make the “Bine Moon” a success in spite of its six authors. Faithful to stage traditions are the lines upon which the entertainment is laid, ringing anew the changes upon the familiar story of the babe stolen by gipsies and brought up as one of their tribe, till the time comes when, as a virtuous maiden, “the secret” of her noble birth is revealed, and she is restored to her aristocratic relatives. The purloiner in this case is a cockney showman, who decamps with his prize to Bur mail, where we make his acquaintance posing as a native juggler and marriage broker. In his latter capacity Moolra], as the impostor calls himself, disposes of his charge, now grown into a fascinating singing girl, to the. native prince. To this arrangement “Blue

Moon” demurs, she having already disclosed of herself by reciprocating the affection of a gallant young English captain. who insists on making her his wife, in defiance of his relatives and the counsel of his superior officer. Their objections are, of course, ultimately removed by the revelation of the girl’s story through the enforced confession of his theft by Aloolraj, and the curtain descends on happiness all round. There are several in the caste known to Antipodean theatregoers, notably Miss Carrie Moore, a dainty lady’s maid, Harold Thorley, Willie Edouin and last, but not least, Aliss Florence Smithson, who is a very pleasing “Blue Moon” indeed. “The White Chrysanthemum,” like so many of its congeners in the past, takes ns to the home of that flower in the Far East. To Japan Lieutenant Armitage has taken away his lady love, Sybil, chaperoned by her friend Betty Kenyon, a frisky young widow. The elopement lias been undertaken by the pair in order that the young gentleman may escape from his official betrothal by his martinet father to a wealthy New York heiress. But the son reckons without hie host, for hardly has this intending benedict settled down with his sweetheart and her pretty friend under the lotus blossoms of his pretty Japanese bungalow, than the unexpected arrival of hie father, the fiery old Admiral, on the China station is announced. He brings with him the fair American. To avoid the threatening unpleasantnesses Sybil disguises herself as a Geisha girl, only, however, suddenly to betray her identity in a fit of jealousy of her rival. It is there that the humourous imbroglio begins. By the accommodating white lies of the young Belmont a friend and brother officer of Lieutenant Armitage, backed by those of the obsequious Chinese servant and the bungalow man-of-all-work, the Amiral is hoodwinked regarding his boy’s love affair long enough to allow of his starting one on his own account by becoming enamoured of Betty Kenyon. Illustrated by song, dance and drollery the story works out to its inevitable conclusion through a triple series of love passages, leaving Armitage paired off with his true love, Belmont with the American girl, and the Admiral with the sprightly widow. The entertainment is remarkable for its refined character, the dialogues are smartly written and though the music is not particularly “catchy” and lacks distinctive quality, it is always bright and tuneful. AN ALLEGED COMEDY.

Mr William Gillette’s new comedy “‘Clarice,” produced at the Duke of York’s Theatre this week, has been described by one critic as a play of golden silence (You remember liiy Sherlock Holmes?) and masterly inaction. Certainly nothing particularly worthy of note is said or done during the time the piece takes to reach its legitimate ending. It is a tale x of a beauteous damsel who loved her guardian, and refused to give him up for anything in the world. Mr Gillette, who acts the role of the guardian (Dr Carrington), has been the object of Clarice’s Aunt’s adoration. He, however, didn’t reciprocate, and all the trouble that for a time mars the course of Clarice’s true love is due to her machinations in paying off that score. They do not prevail for long. Clarice, undeterred by her aunt or Airs Grundy, goes back to her guardian’s house even after he has turned herjout. Immediately after the two have been billing and cooing tenderly over an uneaten dinner, Dr Carrington accepts the false diagnosis of the man. whom Clarice has just rejected and believes himself to be marked for early death from some obscure heart trouble. To tell Clarice is to make her more devoted; so he becomes merely stupid and packs her off. But the sweet, persistent thing returns and in the end has her due reward. We leave her locked in a long, long embrace with Dr Carrington, and golden limelight shining on the pair through the gloom of a darkened .stage. Mr Gillette may with some truth say of his play “’Tis a poor thing, but mine own.” A REAL COMEDY. Mr C. M. G. McLellan, the American playwright, is nothing if not versatile. He wrote that amazing medley of nonsense and wit, “The Belle of New York;” he gave us one of the best of twentiethcentury melodramas in “Leah Kleischna.” Now he figures as the author of the light comedy, “On the Love Path,” with which Mr Frederick Harrison has successfully re-opened the Haymarket Theatre. The idea of the piece is whimsical and ingenious. Arthur Taunton, heir to a peerage, is saved from drowning by an intrepid lady swimmer. He ascertains that she is a Miss Concannon, but there are three Miss Concannons, and he cannot tell which is his rescuer. He proposes to one, only to learn that it was her sister who saved his life. He proposes to each of the three in turn, greatly to his own embarrassment, and the amusement of the audience. The third of the sisters, Charity, saves him from a black-mailing adventuress and a designing solicitor, and eventually marries him. It is a bright little play, depending greatly upon lightness of touch on the part of the actors. Fortunately it is in moat capable hands. Miss Eillis Jeffreys as Charity is delightful, and Miss Beatrice Forbes-Robertson and Miss Jessie Bateman ably second her efforts. Mr George Du Maurier made a hit as the impressionable Taunton, and one of the most amusing features of the comedy‘was Mr Arthur Williams as Concannon pere, an American beef king, who had read Kant and Herbert Spencer, and was troubled with visions of purple cows. GENERAL NOTES. The Adelphi is once more, for the time being, >the home of domestic drama, though “Dr Wake’s Patient,” the new play at the famous old theatre, is officially described as a comedy. An earl’s daughter has been taken to a farm-house with an injured arm, the result of an accident in the hunting-field. There she finds a Harley Street doctor, Dr Wake, and patient and medical man fall

mutually in love, though each keeps the fact a secret from the other. They part, moreover, without knowing anything of each other’s relative position in society. When the young lady returns to town her father, finding that she is moping, sends her to consult Dr Wake, the famous young physician of Harley Street. Thus they meet again, but their mutual love is still unconfessed. The doctor recommends a seaside holiday, but takes care to visit the same resort himself and eventually the engagement of the young couple * takes place, with the sanction of the Earl and Countess. But trouble arises from the fact that the doctor’s parents are of humble origin; they grate on the Earl’s exquisite nerves, and there is a social clash after the most approved traditions of melodrama. But the manliness of that rugged English yeoman, the doctor’s father, carries the day. The Earl withdraws his opposition, a timely knighthood brings social distinction to the lowly-born physician, and Dr Wake’s patient becomes his. bride. Mr C. M. Hallard and Miss Lilian Braithwaite play the leading parts, with Air Brydone as the Earl and Mr Charles Rock as the yeoman farmer. “Oliver Twist,” with Air Beerbolim. Tree as Eagin, is the autumn attraction, at His Majesty’s. The play is lurid melodrama, but Mr Tree gives a memorable study of the rascally old- Jew. “The Woman in White,” at the Kennington Theatre, is notable for a fine performance of the part of Fosco, the large gentleman with the great brain, the expansive manner, the white mice and the canaries; but otherwise it is not a very successful adaptation of Wilkie Collins* famous story. Mr Stead serves up another dose of Gaiety “Spring Chicken” diatribe in the current number of the “Review of Reviews*” Says he: —“As for the aggrieved Mr George Eldwardes and his managers, who at first are reported to have thought of moving for a writ against me for speaking the truth about their play, hut who afterwards Took refuge in regarding my criticisms as unworthy of their notice. - I have only to say that I wish them a more reputable .method of making their living than that qf hiring pretty girls to expose themselves before the public in a play which, from first to last, asserts, asstumes, suggest®, and emphasises the great doctrine that promiscuous adultery is the natural and exquisitely amusing pastime of married men every springtime. For my own part, I would rather win my daily bread by breaking stones by the wayside—yes, or even pick oakum in prison—than consent to earn my living by enlisting youth and beauty, music and painting, all the arts and graces of life, in order to familiarise young men and maidens with the spectacle of vice, and to accustom them to laugh with the fools who make a mock at- sin.”