THE LONDON STAGE.

New Zealand Times, Volume LIV, Issue 9867, 25 March 1893, Page 7 (Supplement)

THE LONDON STAGE.

SPECIAL TO MAIL. (from our own correspondent.) THE BAUBLE SHOP. London, February 27. From a playgoer's point of view Henry’ Arthur Jones’ ‘ The Bauble Shop ’ is a capital piece, full of go from beginning to end, and most enjoyable to witness. It will not, however, stand either analysis or criticism. Plot, politics and characters arc equally impossible. No such leader of the House as the weak, irresolute Lord Clivebrookc can by any stretch of imagination he conceived. The notion of a Premier being able to slip out of the House nightly unnoticed in order to carry on an advanced flirtation with the divinity of an adjacent toy bazaar, is simply too funny for anything. Even more humorous, however, to politicians must seem tho scene in the Premier s room at tho House. Women whisk in and out as though petticoats were permitted there, whereas with the exception of Mrs Gladstone (who is part of the British Constitution, and doesn’t count) no female has ever crossed its sacred portal. The way in which, too, hon members rush in and cross-examine, even ‘ bullyrag ’ the Premier, made Lord Randolph Churchill, who was one of the audience on first night, chuckle consume My. All these anomalies are, however, trifling beside Mr Jones' central and crowning folly, which makes Clivebrooks flirtation with Jessie Keber bring about the fall of the Government. The position is as follows. Clivebrook. having casually made the acquaintance of Jessie Keber and her drunken father (Ecoles redivivus), gets into the habit of paying nightly visits to the Bauble Shop in such intervals of leisure as he can spare from the preparation of a Social Purity Bill. The Premier's first intention is to seduce Jessie, but the girl’s goodness and innocence arouse his dormant conscience, and he has just resolved to say good-bye for ever when (as melodramas say) ‘ all is discovered.’ It seems from the first Clivebrook’s virulent political enemy, Mr Stead, I mean Mr Stoaoh, M.P., has been watching his movements. He knows all about the nightly visits to the Bauble Shop, and assumes the worst, and now appears on the scene to inform his rival he means to make use of the discovery to ruin him. For the sake of Jessie’s reputa. tion Clivebrooke urges, entreats, even implores silence assuring Stoach be has made a horrible mistake. ‘No mistake at all,’ says the virtuous one ; ‘ where is the girl’s father ?’ ‘ In the room at the back, at work, of course,' replies poor Jessie. 1 Not at all; sent to the public house to be out of the way,’ retorts Stoaohj and indeed, Keber now enters very drunk.. Every moment I expected a coup de theatre. Clivebrook. I thought, will turn up and euchre Stoaoh by suddenly introducing Jessie as his future wife. But the coup never came. Act 3 takes place in the Leader of the House’s room. Stoaoh has already circulated damaging Tumours concerning his enemy. Hon members beg Clivebrook to give him the lie or withdraw his Social Purity Bill. He refuses to do either, and the Government is beaten. In Act i Clivebrook takes the obvious course of swamping scandal by doing what he should have done when the difficulty first arose, viz., asking Jessie to marry him. Now, we may be a very moral people, but we have not as yet got to the pitch of turning a Government out because one of its members carries on an intrigue with a shop-girl. Suppose Mr Stead to have accused Mr Balfour of au intrigue with, say, a barmaid, does anyone suppose for a moment the Speaker would allow the House to be adjourned in order that a lot of rabid Radicals of the Stoaoh kidney might discuss the leader of the Government’s guilt. Mr Balfour would merely have had to do what Clivebrook could have done, viz., state to the House that the rumours circulated concerning him were untrue, and that he proposed to prosecute his slandorer. The subject would then drop.

Apart from its political absurdities and misleading pictures of Parliamentary life, * The Bauble Shop ’is a capital play. Acts 2 and i particularly could hardly be improved upon. In the latter the ladies of Clivebrook’s family at first work upon Jessie to refuse him. ’ When, however, the brutal Stoach arrives full of triumph, and on being assured that Jessie has declined the honour of Lord Clivebrook’s band, jeers at them for trying to work off on him a stale device and obvious falsehood, their desire to euchre the wretch overcomes.every other feeling. Jessie is received into the family and persuaded to chance her mind, and the curtain falls on Stoach’s discomfiture,

The failure of ‘La Kosiere/ though signifying the loss cf many thousand pounds to Hiss Marie Halton's ‘financier,' will not be her only venture. A comic opera on the subject of hypnotism by Mr Money Coutts, with music by Solomon, is already in rc« rehearsal. Business at the Savoy became so bad during the frost that the forthcoming Barrie* Doyle opera (music by Ernest Ford) was actually put into rehearsal. ‘ Haddou Hall 1 is now, however, is now doing well again, and will probably run till Easter. Bad luck seems to have settled down on the Comedy Theatre. ‘ To-Day/ which would have run many months two years ago had to be withdrawn in a few weeks, and despite a chorus of praise from the critics, 4 The Sportsman ’ doesn't seem to have caught on. I fancy, to tell the truth, people are a little tired of Charley Hawtrey's fluent, lying husband, and Lottie Venne's naughty milliner. The leading sensation is always the same in these plays, viz., Haw* trfey running after Lottie on the sly and telling lies with amazing assurance to his wife. After a run of 150 nights at the Vaudeville, ‘ Our Boys * has given place to ‘ Tho Guv’nor/ another of the pieces which Mr David James originally carried on his own shoulders to success, * Yer ’and, Guv’nor, yer ’and ’ became a popular catch phrase when this play was first produced.