A LAUGHTER-MAKER

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12527, 17 August 1926, Page 8

A LAUGHTER-MAKER

“FRENCH LEAVE”—OPERA HOUSE MURIEL STARR AT HER BEST A real laughter-maker is ‘‘French Leave/' the newest Muriel Starr play which began its run of three nights at the Grand Opera House last evening. First played here by Miss Emelie Polini and by a New Zealander, the comedy proves to have lost none of its freshness. Indeed, with the war now receded into history and no longer capable of producing 'hot enthusiasm, the play may be said to have improved. The atmosphere, which is largely tin-soldier and not clouded by any rude intrusion of the suffering and death which rules all around, lends itself to the production of an entertaining farce. Lightheartedness is infectious, and the business of getting on with the war is not really a serious business, everyone knows that. It is, in fact, that amiable land of m'ake-beheve where true comedy flourishes, unhampered by any standards whatever, the country that Charles Lamb defended. The war is no more than a peg to hang the play upon, the germ of the play has outlived the- war and was before it. A wife’s devotion to her husband, a husband’s jealousy, the gallantry of an old naan, the conceit of a young one, are things which will always bo with us It all begins when Dorothy Glenister, disappointed of her husband’s company in Paris owing to a cancelled “leave/’ decides to come up to a rest camp to seek him, and bribes the landlady of the Brigade billet to allow her to pass as on-a of the family. This, of course, involves h©r posing as a Frenchwoman and a member of the chorus of a Parisian company, and for pretty Frenchwomen who are also members of a chorus soldiers are known to have a weakness. So that before long she has captivated overyone from Brigadier-General Sir Archibald Root, D. 5.0., to Acting-Staff-Captain George Graham, who is a devil with the sirls. The spectacle of the husband sitting by while his wife is paid extravagant compliments and even flirted with provides entertainment enough, but more is forthcoming in the second act where there occurs such a midnight mix-up as requires an act to unravel. The situations here are as amusing as in any post-war play, and last night the audience enjoyed them to the full. How the Captain escapes being cashiered because of his wife’s breach of an Army regulation, and how his wife herself escapes being imprisoned as a German spy. are told at an unexpected turn of events which closes the play. This is the best part that Miss Muriel Starr has yet taken. She has distinct talents as a comedienne, and while the part is not as exacting as others which she has played, she brings to it charm and freshness. Mr Harvey Adams's portrait of the Brigadier is a full length likeness, refreshingly different from the stereotyped peppery gentleman, with whom we are all familiar. Mr Kenneth Brampton’s playing of Captain Harry Glenister is good, as is Mr Raymond Lawrence’s Lieut. George Graham; but Mr Fred Coape’s Corporal Sykes is better. Excellent work this, and the business between the Corporal and Rifleman Jenks (Mr Felix Bland) is snappy and well done. Other parts are taken by Mr Kyrle Sylvaney (a French interpreter) and Miss Bertha Ballenger (a French landlady). “Between the Soup and Savoury,” a neat little one-act of Gertrude Jennings, is put on as a curtain-raiser. It tells of life below stairs, and is well played by Misses Bertha Ballenger, Clarice Kingsley, and Bebe Scott. Miss Kingsley is, outstanding.