ENTERTAINMENTS

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12040, 19 January 1925, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

" SLEEPING FARTHERS " GALLIC "WIT AND GAIETY. MR SEYMOUR HICKS OPENS. Anyone to'whom Sacha Guitry was more than a name knew what to expect when they saw the curtain rise on “Sleeping Partners” at His Majesty’s Theatre on Saturday evening. French farce, airily nonsensical, replete with wit and concerning the most .tremendous and most incidental thing in the world, man’s relation with woman. But more than that—a relationship, complicated by the manifold restraints of social intercourse, not Arcady, but the Quai Voltaire, not the love in a wood of Strephon, but the “Love in a Wood” of Wycherley.' But the greater proportion of the audience .did not know what' to expect. And to them the unfolding 'of all the amorous complications of the f amous French .comedian, his naughty delicacy and delicate naughtiness, mugt have been a sheer delight. At all events, the audience began by being amused, ended by being amused, and incessantly wondered in an attitude of bolt-upright-ness. what was coming next. And well it might. ■ ' Mr Seymour Hicks and Miss Ellaline Terriss play Guitry in. New Zealand for the first time. And their choice, an Anglicised version of the “Faison nn Reve,” is a neat and compact translation of the play which tickled half Paris and all England. It is surprisingly well .‘done, the jokes are adapted, enlarged in a manner little short of miraculous the' dialogue at times sparkles like a Wilde play; epigrams fall from, the lips of the characters without any undue plump, and the suggestion: of France is not the result of surroundings on an obscure jugglery with place-names or untranslateable phrases. The play has atmosphere; the htmosphere. ia Gallic, and' it • is gainied. by people who speak perfect English, aha, compared with, the ordinary run of comedies, it is as a light arid agreeable wine beside colonial madeira. ~ “Sleeping Partners”- is a play for the confa.oisseur; it is to be flavoured , ifi rare sips, and it sets ' the mind adancing. There are: those who-would capture butterflies', and those who demand a comedy’s plot, No words can recreate the delicious Gallicism of the play—a world where manners are above morals, and.to be virtuous is no excuse for being out-of-date. 'The three acts which go,to the making of the piece tell how a woman hesitated once, how she hesitated again, and- how she hid the results of her indiscretion, and her would-be lover’s error. Married'she is. hut" she comes to his apartment with willing, .unwilling fact, and promptly faints. In. haste the man seeks’ some sol \ volatile, hut, he gives hef -insteacT a labour sleeping draught, and the: play reaches its climax with his despairing:cry: “I thought to be your lovetr. and-1 am only a night watchman!” Things 'do not end there by any means. There are many/happenings, and much conversation, rather much conversation in a third act, which reveals no hesitation, and a> thoroughly French topsy-turvying Of the situation. But, most of all, the play is remarkable- because it introduces us to Mr Sevmour Hicks'. Anyone who knows anything of comedy knows Mr Hicks: 1 ho is the Mereutio of the ■ modern etstge. His every action gives tongue . and every tongue tells a new jest. He ' is at once, glorious and unique! There has been nothing like him since /Kinaston, and will, be nothing until America is a monarchy*. ■ Ini the play he is nameless; he is wicked and he is the perfect lover. Hs has devoted-him-•self’ to the art of amoriam, and- her has mastered it as,, perfectly ,as Watteau mastered his/brush. . He loves'with romance and fastidiousness, but with all the energy' which-he might have scent on the profession which ne abandoned. He knows the whole alphabet of wooing; blit he does not know enough to ' prevent himself from being made a fool 1 of, and he would he the last to sympathise with himself' for this inefficiency. Miss ’ Ellaline Terriss is obviously fascinated. She is demure and attractive, -above all refined —the woman one could imagine provoking this modern. de Grammont; and she aefs qpietlv and well. Mr Vivian Edwards, as the husband,, confirms to tyjie. He is, thh French idea of - a pretty woman’s/ hjisband—dull, self-satisfied, well-tail-ored, always ready'to he fooled, and interesting at such times only. His deceit is as transparent, as his affection for his wife ia little. Nice work is done by Reginald Collins as, the discreet servant of Lothario. He is neatly Gallic, i ■ ’ ■ . . Thb curtain-paisar to “Sleeping Partners” is J. B. , Buchstfiae’s, “Scrooge,” an adaptation of Dickens’s “Christmas, Carol.” It confirms the impression that : Dickens is first '» • novelist. The meanness of Scrooge, ( the, miser’s vision, and his subsequent reformation, are depicted and the best portion of the / act- is that where :• the series of visions .are shown the skinflint by a too-material ghostr /These visions are well acted in the right Dickensian: vein, and introduced a wealth of characters. The successes of the piece were Mr Seymour Hioks as Scrooge—a good study; Mr' Austen Milroy as the ghost of Jacob Marley; Mr Norman Lee, as Scrooge’s nephew/, and Mk Herbert Shieldrick as the timorous Bob Oratchft. Other foies are filled by Reginald Collins, Bert Frawley, Vera Wright, Phyllis Fuller, Nancy Redder, Marie (Gentry, Mona Parkinson, Marjorie Vause, and Elizabeth Seymour. “Scrooge” and “Sleeping Partners will he played all this week. STRAND THEATRE HUMOROUS HAROLD LLOYD. ‘‘Why Worry P” will" be continued at the Strand all this week. Harold Lloyd possesses a sense of humour characteristic of no other screen star, and, with a well-chosen supporting cast, he is at his best and brightest in this picture. Such a man as ho who takes the part of Coloso has never been seen, on the screen before. 'He stands Bft 9in, so it can easily be imagined the mirth provoked when he lends his hoots to Lloyd, who is hut a dwarf in comparison. As a wealthy young clubman, suffering from all sorts of imaginary -complaints, Lloyd sets, out with his valet and nurse for a secluded island called “Paradiso,” with the intention of regaining his health. It is while on this island 'that the uproarious _ experiences are undermine. Bpsides this super attraction there is also screened a captivating society drama entitled “Mine to Keep.” It is a compelling drama of love and ioalonsy accompanied by nuns erous thrills. Included in the splendid programme sTe a comedy, . scenic, gpzette end the continuance of the serial. “The Purple Riders.” The music played bv Harry Avery’s bahd is by no means tlie least part of the programme which will he continued all the week.