ENGLISH THEATRICAL NOTES.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 5731, 28 October 1905, Page 11

ENGLISH THEATRICAL NOTES.

□from Our Special Correspondent.) LONDON. Sept. 13. "THE PRODIGAL SON.” For once in a while the unexpected has not happened. Everyone predicted suecess for “The Prod gal Son,” and it is now becoming apparent that everyone will prove right. Mr Hall Caine’s play is "drawing tire whole town," and seems likely to co*ntinuo to do so until the Christmas pantomime replaces it on the stage of Old Drury. "Tho 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 aii the success for which playwright and manager have made so bold a bid. The story of the play follows closely the lines of Mr Hall Caine’s novel. One may iuier, from the mammoth circulation which the book has attained, that everybody has read it by now, and that it will therefore not bo necessary to outline the story at any length. Oscar Stcphensson, 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 Noiison, who was on tho point of marrying Oscar’s brother Magnus. The discovery that Thora docs not love him is a staggering surprise to Magnus, who loves Thora passionately; but, after a great struggle, ho determines to give her up to Oscar, thus deciding in favour of the girl’s happiness against his own. Oscar offers to take tho place which Magnus refuses, and to marry Thora, and his offer is accepted. A year has passed when tho curtain rises on the second act. and the scene is Government House, Iceland, tho home of the Governor-General, father ot Oscar and Magnus. In the meantime Oscar and Thora havo been married and havo had a long honeymoon abroad. Much has happened in the interval; Oscar has fallen under tho 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 g ving birth to a daughter. Oscar’s forgeries are discovered by ins 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 (o the lowest depths of degradation, cut off from every tie of home and friends and love, gaipblfs recklessly at the tables, and even seeks to retrieve his losses by cheating with the cards. Too late, when all is lost, ho is seized with a pasion of remorse, and renounces tor over his evil genius, Helga. Ten years are supposed to havo passed when the curtain rises on tho 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 a musician during the past ten years. Not till after his departure dues it beco.ee known that , the stranger was Oscar Stcphensson. The fourth act culminates in a tableau depicting tho repentant prodigal’s departure. He stands on the mountain side, looking down upon tho village in the valley, and listening, with a smile upon his careworn face, to Ihe ringing of the church boils. He has made reparation and has found comfort in his penitence. Here tho author’s story ends, but Mr Collins lias 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 Mr Frank Cooper as the brother Magnus; 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 “hew 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 "Blue 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 oooka, etc.” The production is "pretty” but it is altogether pointless, and the actors and actresses in it have a hard job to make what "fat” there is in the piece go round once. Yet (die story such as it is, lends itself to a display of the glamour of diaphonously. if gorgeously draped feminine charms, and these combined with catchy songs and “patter” that will no doubt improve ns time goes on will probably make the “Blue 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 Burmah, 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 "Bine Moon” demurs, she having already disposed 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 Moolraj, 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. Sites 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 Tar East. To Japan Lieutenant Armitage has taken away his lady love, Sybil, chaperoned by her friend Betty Kenyon, a frisky young widow. The elopement has 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 his host, for hardly has this intending benedictfc settled down with his sweetheart and her pretty friend under tho lotus blossoms of his pretty Japanese bungalow, than the unexpected arrival of his father, the fiery old Admiral, on the Chinn 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, tbo Amira 1 is hoodwinked regarding his bov*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 throngh a triple series of love passages, leaving

Armitage paired off with his true love, Belmont with the American girl, and the Admiral with tho 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 his Sherlock Holmes?) and masterly inaction. Certainly nothing part.cularly worthy of note is said or dono during the time the piece takes to reach Us legitimate ending. It is a tale of a beauteous damsel who loved her guardian, and refused to give him up for anything in tho world. Mr Gillette, who acts the role of tho guardian (Dr Carrington), has been the object of Clarice’s Aunt’s adoration. He, however, didn’t reciprocate, and all tho trouble that for a time mars the course of Clarice’s true love is duo to her machinations in paying off that score. They do not prevail for long. Clarice, undeterred by her aunt or Mrs Grundy, goes back to her guardian’s house. even after he has turned her out. Immediately after the two have been billing and cooing tenderly over an uneaten dinner. Dr Carrington accepts tho false diagnosis of the man whom Clarice has just rejected ami believes h.mself to be marked for early death from some obscure heart trouble. To tell Clarice is to make her more devoted: so ho becomes merely stupid and packs her off. But the sweet, persistent thing returns and in tho end has hei due reward. Wo leave her locked m a long, long embrace with Dr Carrington, and golden limelight shining on the pair through tho 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 Now York;" he cave us one of tho best of twentiethcontnry melodramas in "Leah Khochna.” Now he figures us tho author of the light comedy, "On the Love Path,” with which’ Mr i'rederiok Harrison has successfully ro-upened the Hayniarket Theatre. The idea of tho 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 projioses to one, only to learn - that it was her sister ivho saved his life. He proposes to each of the throe in turn, greatly to his own embarrassment, and the amusement of tho audience. The third of the sisters, Charity, saves him from a black-mail.ng adventuress and a designing solicitor, and eventually marries him. It is a bright littlo play, depending greatly upon lightness of touch on tile part of the actors. Fortunately it is in most capable hands. Miss Ellis Jeffreys as Charity is delightful, and Miss Beatrice Forbes-Eobertson and Miss Jessie Bateman ably oecond her efforts. Mr George Du Mauricr made a hit as the impressionable Taunton, and one of the most amusing features of the comedy was Mr Arthur Williams- as Concanuon pere, an American beef king, who had read Kant and Herbert Spencer, and was troubled with visions of purple cows. GENERAL NOTES.

The Adolphi 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, hut their mutual love is still uneonfessed. 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-horn physician, and Dr Wake’s patient becomes his bride. Mr C. M, Hnllnrd and Miss Lilian Braithwaite play the leading parte, with Mr Brydone as the Earl and Mr Charles Rock as the yeoman farmer. "Oliver Twist,” with Mr Beerbohm Tree as Fagin, 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 gen. tleman with the great brain, the expansive manner, the white mice and the canaries; hut 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 Edwardes and his managers, who at first are reported to have thought of moving for a writ against me for speaking the truth about thoir play, but 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 of hiring pretty girls to expose themselves before the public in a play which, from first to last, asserts, assumes, suggests, 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, musia and painting, all the arts and graces of life, in order to familiarise young men and maidens with the spectacle of vice, and co accustom them to laugh with the fools who make a mock at sin.”