'THE LAW OF THE LAND’

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9620, 28 March 1917, Page 2

'THE LAW OF THE LAND’

A TENSE DRAMA LAST OF THE FLORENCE ROCKWELL SERIES. Last but noti least of Hie present repertory of the Florence Rockwell Company comes "The Law of the Land. This latest American play, by George Broadhurst, was presented with the utmost success at the .Grand Opera House last evening before a large audience, and it is to be put forward for two more nights to bring a thoroughly satisfactory Wellington season to a close. “The Law of the Land’ is a drama which enables the' leading characters to be enacted with emotionalism, amen is vigorous and tense in the extieme. The main figures are a brute of a husband, who is u disgrace to the Ameucan legal profession, a wife who is driven by his cruelty to seek the solace of an unauthorised lover, and the latter. After ten years of matrimonial agony the wife in a spirit of desperation rids herself of her oriiel and exasperating spouse by a bullet through his heart. Then the problem faces Uer of how the terrible deed is to be dealt with. She has the alternative of considering the future of a child who baa been much ill-treated by the father, and of sacrificiug her lover, who vs prepared to take on his shoulders the responsibility. of the murder. At the end of a most exciting interview which tasea up the best part of one act she is moved to consider the child, only to break away from her resolution . afterwards when her lover is placed under arrest. She is then saved by the resource of an unusually human police inspector, who learns from the child the tragic inner history of the household. woman tells the Story of what led up to the murder and at the end falters. “And then—" she tremblingly relates. “And then . And then, 6a vs the inspector, “the revolver tell from your hands, and in striking trip floor exploded, and shot Mr Harding through the heart. It was an accident." He reports to the coroner accordingly. , Taken altogether, the performance of the company was a remarkably effective one, a composite whole being secured by : the solid aid lent by the representatives of all the characters included in the cast And credit must be accord, ed tho producer, Mr George - Barnum, for the suitable stage effects introduced. The first setting created a suggestive atmosphere for what was to follow, ctirtain rose on. a shady* sceuo—the study Of -' tho ’fliuty^hearted'lawyer iiaruing. Streaks of moonlight fitfully shone across the room, an 4 as HardTug’s clerk entered there was the glow of a red lamp through the opened door. Later on when Harding lay dead at the side- of his desk there was. a recrudescence of these sombre lighting effects. A subsequent cubic setting created quite a novel and natural impression. - Miss Florence. Rockwell was seen at her best as Mrs Harding, the tortured wife, especially where she had to listen to the cruelty exercised. upon a nifie-year-old son ,in- an adjoining mordent was : reminiscent of the “Tosca torture scene of Sardou- It was with admirable self-restraint that she listened W the jibes and: threats of Harding when he-refuses her the resort of divorce, preferring to humiliate her by a judicial separation., which is to be the ■ prelude to consigning ‘ wife and son to tiro gutteris Geoffrey Mauton, the lover, Mr Frank Harvey gave Miss Rockwell. excellent support, • and : in his introductory interview with • Harding exhibited the ueces, (ary self-restraint to bring in bolder relief tho hectoring attitude- of his rivalMr Charles ‘Brown made the part of -Robert Harding-' particulariyi-Arepiilsive, painting the legal bully in vivid colours. Ho earned .the ■ candid enmity ot the audience in the opening scene where, with the utmost coarseness and uneouthress he hissed his venomous epithets against the shrinking figure of the illumed wife. Tho part of Arthur Brockland, the clerk of Harding, was played with much skill by Mr Leslie Victor/ and Mr Stephen E. Scanlan made the character of the faithful butler Chetwood a inoat interesting one. Bennie Harding, the ill-used lad of tho Harding household, was remarkably welt impersonated by Kathleen, Lindcren. Mr Arthur ‘ Sty an', always versatile and ’ convincing, made the best of the character of the 'Police inspector,'"and 'Mr 'Boyd “Irwin filled the role of a subsidiary captain. Mr W. Lockhart acted naturally as Dr Whittridgo. ’