“CAPE FORLORN.”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21022, 10 May 1930, Page 19

“CAPE FORLORN.”

LOVE IN A LIGHTHOUSE. • A NEW ZEALAND SETTING. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON,' April 4. Mr Frank Harvey, actor and playwright, who lately returned, from’ a long sojourn at the Antipbdes, has written | another play, “Cape Forlorn,” with New i Zealand as its setting. To a New Zea- ; lander the play is full of vivid local interest, so many centres being mentioned in the course of the story. The interior of a lighthouse, some miles off Collingwood is the selected pivot for the unfolding and development of the drama, which turns out to be very strong meat indeed. One .hopes that Mr Harvey does not regard the very unpleasant woman of his.story as a typical product of the Dominion. Selfish, indolent, heartless, cynical, bored, wholly immoral, she is irideed far from being representative of the- country. The author might have put his powerful and well-constructed story in any place, but he chose the living room of an isolated lighthouse. It certainly provides a suitable centre, as it rteeded some remote scene for its unfolding. There are only four people in the cast who matter. The fifth represents a Maori servant, who is seen only once for .a few minutes, and he is not any loss when he takes the dinghy to Waipara, thereby enhancing the solitariness of those I who remain, THE STORY. I The keeper of the lighthouse, William I Kell (Mr Harvey), is a fine character I and very typical of his calling; good--1 natured, cheerful, making the best of bis lonely vacation with the anticipation of being able to retire in three years cora-fortably-circumstanced because of regular thrift. He does not suspect his wife of duplicity. This woman, Eileen (Marda Vanne), makes no secret of her loathing of lighthouse life; she is discontented and is always disagreeable. She has a lover, Cass (Edmund Willard), mate of her husband. He, is a noisy bully and a strong man,, and elopement has been planned, but when he, can offer. her no better prospect than strenuous life on a dairy farm 200 milea from Sydney, her interest begins to ■ wane. But there is reason for his hold over her, and she fears him. Then, unexpectedly, a castaway arrives, Gordon Kingsley (Louis Bradfield) —a gentleman, but a fugitive from justice, who, in an endeavour to escape from Wellington in his motor launch, to ayoid arrest for heavy defalcations in connection with the Otago Building Society, of which he is general manager, comes,,to grief on the rocks of the lighthouse, and is taken in by the keeper. Eileen immediately makes love to this spineless, educated man from Wanganui College, and plans an elopement with him, though at the time she does not know that he is a thief, and that he has ruined her husband financially. A description of the missing man comes across from Wellington by wireless, and is heard only by Cass’, who already is jealous of Kingsley. His hatred develops rapidly, and-- there is a great stene where he charges Kingsley with being the wanted i man. The two men quarrel violently, and Eileen shoots at Cass with Kingsley’s pistol, mortally wounding him. In due course the Captain begins to be suspicious, and in a very strong scene he drags the truth out of his untruthful wife and out of the prevaricating Kingsley, and learns that the latter is doubly a thief,. fn that he has stolen his wife and his money, too. Mr Harvey is very fine in this tense scene, in which his dyes are so rudely opened in regard to his wife‘s real character. For her he now has no mercy, and her future with him will not be a bed of roses, for he will. no more be an indulgent husband. He is cheated of his anticipated satisfaction of seeing Kingsley’s arrest on the arrival of the relief boat, accompanied by an inspector, for the man, too cowardly to face seven years, slips put arid throws himself into the sea. In his coat pocket was a wad of bank notes (£6000): Eileen helps herself to these, and puts them in her handbag. Then, calmly, she takes out lipstick and mirror,.and so prepares to make conquest of the next stranger to the lighthouse, or, possibly, in anticipation,of going ashore in the relief boat, which was hurried over from Collingwood because the skipper had put out the light. "For two'years," he said, l< I have urged them to give me a telephone. Perhaps, after this, they will see to it." The play is admirably cast. Marda Vanne has a most difficult character to portray, and she does it with -understanding. The woman is common. She married a lighthousefceeper because, she did not want to be a school teacher. - Other features worthy of note are the cries of unseen gulls, the beating cf the big sea over the rocks in a storm, and the introduction by the orchestra of some of Mr Alfred-s Hill’s well-known and tuneful music. . • Mr Harvey has written his play in a crisp way, without waste of words, and since the_ opening night the action has been considerably speeded up. . One hopes that “Cape Forlorn” will have a good run at the Fortune Theatre. It made a eatisfactory start, and has been recommended by an appreciative press. Mr Tom Walls, the producer, made an amusing speech on the first night.