GRAND OPERA HOUSE

New Zealand Times, Volume LIV, Issue 12652, 12 January 1927, Page 8

GRAND OPERA HOUSE

“THE OUTSIDER.” Another good house greeted the final performance of “The Outsider” at the Grand Opera House last night. Mr Moscovitch, who takes the part of Anton Ragatzy, the quack doctor, gave the most convincing interpretation seen here. In brief the plot deals with the wonderful cures effected by Ragatzy a quack doctor, who appears before the honorary surgical staff of a London hospital. One of the surgeons, Jasper Sturdee, refuses to see the quack, whose kind he roundly condemns, telling his colleagues about his own daughter, a cripple, who was maimed as a child by the treatment of a_ quack. Ragatzy determines to cure the surgeon’s daughter, and induces her to place herself in his hands for a year. She does so and she has to ljf on the “rack,” Ragatzy’s patent appliance, for the whole period. There is a moving scene in the last act when the crippled girl, cured, discovers her lover false, and incidentally finds the man of her dream? in the person of the quack himself. Miss Ellen Pollock, as the crippled girl, Lalage Sturdee, gave a delightful portrayal of the sensitive, artistic, and heart-hungry girl longing for a healthy body. Her emotional appeals were finely handled, and her performance was worthy of that of Moscovitch. Another very fine portrayal was given by Miss Eileen Sparks as Mme. Klost, a cripple cured by the quack. Other parts were well taken by Miss Margaret Murray, Messrs Reginald Newson, George Blunt, George Zucco, Alexandtr Sander, and Nat Madison.