PRINCESS THEATRE.

Otago Witness, 25 January 1900, Page 50

PRINCESS THEATRE.

" THE GAY LORD QUEX."

"The Gay Lord Quex," one of the latest; of Mr A. W. Pinero's creations, was introduced by Mr Brough on the 12th to a large audience in the Princess Theatre. The Marquess of Quex, at the age of 45, possesses the reputation of being the wickedest man in all London. This is not merely the reputation that the gossip of the clubs gives him. It has penetrated far and wide. It has reached even the ears of Muriel Eden, a pink-and-white young lady, who nevertheless has betrothed herself to Quex. It is to be a mariage de convenance. Her affections are bestowed upon Captain Bastlmg, but she has accepted the addresses of the gay marquess conditionally, however, upon his good behaviour. Muriel's foster-sister, Sophy Fullgarvey, who makes a comfortable income as a fashionable manicurist, does her best to upset this arrangement. Knowing the chaivcter Lord Quex possesses, she regards it as her duty to save Muriel from him, and she descends to trickery in order to achieve her end. A chance gathering one night at the residence to the Countess of O wbridge, at Richmond, gives hei a chance of testing Lord Quex's constancy to his "fiancee. She spies upon him, she tries herself to betray him into the commission of an indiscretion. He is pioof against her. He has given over his old life, and finds enjoyment in his unaccustomed efforts at virtue. She spies upon him again, and this time she obtains a trail, which she determines to follow up. Among others at Lady Owbridge's is Sidonia, the Duchess of Strood, who has had an intrigue with Quex m the past, every detail of which she has carefully preserved in her memory. She begs him to accord her a " parting in keeping with their great attachment," so that when she returns to her husband she may carry with her ''the numb despair of a piteous climax." Failing his compliance with this request, she will prolong her visit at Lady Owbridge's. Of the two alternatives, Quex accepts the formei as the less dangerous. Thus far the first two acts of Mr Pinero's play take us. The third act is laid in Lady Strood's bedchamber shortly before midnight. Q\iex visits it — reluctantly, shamefacedly, innocently. Sidonia's advances are gently but firmly re,pelled by him. The mention of Sophy leads him to express his conviction that she is spying upon him. He offers to supply the proof. Sophy's room opens on to a passage, from which there is a door communicating with Lady Strood's. He quietly opens this door, and Sophy falls in a huddled mass into the room. She had been at the keyhole. Quex recognises that he has placed himself in Sophy's hands, but his quick mind suggests the possibility of a way out. Ho induces Lady Strood to betake herself to another room, and then traps Sophy into the room with him. She tells him all she knows, and proclaims her intention to inform Muriel in the morning. She has him in her power. She contemptuously rejects his offers to purchase her silence, and she rejects his appeals to her c> gi^e him a chance. But when she turns to withdraw she finds that all the doors are locked, and that the keys are not in them. He is candid with her, as she has been with him. When the household discovers him in the morning he will not bo alone. His will not be the only reputation, that will suffer. She pleads with, kuo, ta <M

dier go, she storms at him, she pleads with him again when she recollects that her own fiance is on the premises. Quex is now the master of the -situation. He dictates his own terms, and she accepts them, but then revokes her decision, and, pulling the bell-rope, alarms the servants. Overwhelmed with admiration for her pluck, Quex unlocks the door and releases her, and she, grateful in return, promises to do her best for him. It is a great scene, full of dramatic interest, and exciting strong tension of feeling, and it was powerfully played. After this tha fourth act falla somewhat flatly. Sophy fibs to redeem her promise to Quex, and does him no service thereby ; she fibs to him, and only lands herself in the mire as the consequence; and -finally she puts Captain Bastling to the test of his loyalty- to Muriel, and, proving him wanting, fulfils her contract with Quex. " The Gay Lord Quex " is a very clever, yery strong, rather disagreeable play. Its characters are not people in whose conduct an inspiring example is to be found. The very opposite. The .nearest approach to an admirable character among them is the old-fashioned Countess of Owbridge, whose notion of a popular entertainment is an evening at the Imperial Institute, and whose innocence leads her to ■welcome a battered old roue as a "wholesome friend" for her nephew, Lord Quex. The majority of • the others are individuals whose paets'are better buried in oblivion, and whose 'presents are a sham and a deceit. The gay Lord Quex is the male counterpart of the same author's Second Mrs Tanqueray. The problem with him is the same as the problem was ■with her. Is a person's future to be. judged by the past? Can the' leopard change his spots? In '"The Gay Lord Quex" Mr Pinero does not solve his problem. He only suggests a different answer to that which was his solution of the problem that Aubrey Tanqueray's second marriage raised. This presentation of the problem is very skilful, very daring, and not a little objectionable. There is no dramatisff ■who can deal with a difficult situation more adroitly than Mr Pinero can. The third act in " The Gay Lord Quex " is an illustration of this. It is a shocking situation which Mr Pinero has contrived, and nis brilliant ability carries ..hirn all but triumphantly through it. But he deliberately mars the beauty of his-work. There was absolutly no object in Lady Strood effecting a change of toilet while she was awaitiag the arrival oi the Marquess. Nothing turned on it. By introducing this incident Mr Pinero merely pandered to a gross appetite. ."Equally unnecessary and equally objectionable was the incident of Lady Strood's return to the ;oom, and her ostentatious display of the reason that brought her back. It provoked an uneasy laugh, and left an uncomfortable impression. What makes these incident •> so provoking is that they are so pointless. These are the spots | on the sun in the play. i Mrs Brough is constantly gathering fresh i laurels. And assuredly she secures them in | armfuls by her representation of the manicurist. It is an extremely difficult character ; "to present consistently, but Mrs Brough por- J trayed it with conspicuous skill. The third act was an artistic triumph for her. The air of bravado with which Sophy, detected in eavesdropping, sought to braze.l out her act ef meanness, the attitude of defiance with which she received Quex's threats, the scorn •with which she rejected his pioffered bribe, the pathos with which she appealed to him to release her from a compromising situati<}*i, i the passion of disappointment with which she ! turned on him — in all its aspects the character j ■was presented with splendidly convincing force by Mrs Brough, whose excellent acting •was acknowledged by the warmest of recalls ] after the act. "Mr Brough, as the gay Lord, fully shared in the honours of the evening. Quex, in his hands, became flesh and blood, a man of strong will power, earnestly desirous of living down and forgetting the past, and j of opening a new and nnblotted page in his life's account. It was an excellent impersonation, quite one of the best that Mr Brough has ever given us. Miss Temple played with distinct skill and admirable delicacy the character of Lady Slrood. It is a character that requires to be handled with the greatest possible care, and Miss Temple succeeded most artistically. An admirable sketch was supplied by Mr Dartrey of the part of Sir Chichester Fras'ne, the wicked lord's wicked companion; and Miss Noble, Miss Thompson. Miss Rochfort, Mr Majeroni, and Mr Lovell all did good service in their respective characters. The piece was mounted in a style that evoked, as it deserved, demonstrations of approval. " THE PHYSICIAN." Notwithstanding the exceedingly disagreeable ■weather, there was a large attendance at the Princess Theatre on Friday evening, when the Brough Comedy Company presented another change of programme, producing a four-act comedy entitled '!The Physician," and written by Henry Arthur Jones, the author of "The Liars." " The Physician " is on the whole a play of serious interest. It deals with no sex problem, and with no question of doubtful propriety. It is, on the contrary, the story of the noble, self-sacrificing endeavour of a fashionable doctor to rescue from the toils of dipsomania the fiance of a young girl in whom his interest has been aroused. The doctor is Lewin Carey, who, in the enjoyment of a lucrative practice, and of an extensive reputation for his treatment of cases of neurasthemia, confesses hi the opening act to his being so much out of sorts as to occasion the belief that he is himself suffering from the disorder in which he specialises. His feeling of depression is increased by the fact that Ladj' Valeric Camville, with whom he has had what the French call an affair, breaks off tha attachment. At this juncture he is consulted by a " piece of white muslin " in the person of Edana Hinde. She is beset with anxiety, not on her own account, but on that of one Walter Amphiel, to whom she is betrothed. Amphiel has caused some st r as a temperance organiser, and his fiancee, who is herself enthusiastic m the " cause," is fearful respecting the state of his health, concerning which, however, he declines to see o doctor. Under these circumstances she begs Dr Carey to visit Fontleas, where her father is vicar, and to apply his skill to the treatment of Amphiel. The prospect that the change would be beneficial to his health, and the interest which Edana has aroused m him, determine him to comply with her wishes. At Fontleas the true facts of the case are quickly seized by him. Amphiel is a canting, disgusting hypocrite. His absences, for which he accounts by statements that he is engaged on temperance work, are consumed in •wild debauchery, in the company of society's diegs. He is a periodical victim to an irresistible temptation for drink. When he feels that the influence of this temptation is overcoming him he disappears, and when ho letuiiis the innocent, trusting girl to whom he is engaged implicitly accepts his assurances. Lewin j Carey, however, penetrates at once to the root j of the trouble. Thencefoiward, for the sake of Edana, for whom he has conceived a strong love that makes him entirely proof against Lady Valerie's advances for a restoration of their terms of intimacy, he devotes himself wholeheartedly to the treatment of Amphiel. The latter escapes Ins vigilance on one occasion, a-nd, when traced by detectives, is ascertained to be engaged in a wild orgie in a vile haunt. When he returns a stormy interview occurs between Lewin Carey and him, and this is accidentally overheard by Edana, who thus obtains her first insighb into her lover's real chaiacter. Moved by Aiapluol's entreaties, the nkvsician

agrees to give him one more chance, and takes Inni away from the country. Again the resolutions which Amphiel has made fail to enable the nerveless wretch to withstand the temptation to drink, and Carey is obliged to abandon the task, the fulfilment of which would have deprived him of the woman he loves. In any case, however, a further revelation she receives of Amphiel' s imworthiness had formed in her the determination that she could not marry the temperance orator, and left her free to wed the physician. The play is thoroughly healthy,, as well as distinctly well written. In point of dialogue it must be counted among the best of Henry Arthur Jones's works. And the contrasts between certain of the characters are remarkably broad and effective. Nothing could be better than the contrast between the mentally and physically strong Lewin Carey, and the morally debased, mentally enfeebled, phy-sically-wrecked Walter Amphiel, while the ingenuous, simple Edana was a striking foil to the worldly-minded, pleasure-seeking Lady Valeric. The weakness of the play consists in the transparency of the plot. It is the unexpected that delights; but '"The Physician" turns out in the end as might be anticipated after the first act.

As will .be gathered from the foregoing, the burden of the piece is somewhat gloomy, yet the story was followed with absorbing interest from start to finish. The career of the unfortunate, dispainng drunkard, struggling in the cruel iron bonds of the vice which had become implanted in his breast, Was followed with irresistible fascination, and the towering nobility of character depicted in the part of the Physician proved an attractive, forceful subject, in the study of which the audience never tired. As Dr Lewin Carey Mr Joseph Came found an opportunity of showing to the full his unquestionable dramatic skill. The Physician's life is the embodiment of utter self-abnegation, it is a picture of self-effacing sympathy and charity, and of the highest ideals in human affection. It is one long history of self-repres-sion, and Mr Carne' s study may certainly be set down as the most artistic and skilful piece of acting that has hitherto been witnessed from that gentleman during the Brough. Company's season. The scene wherein Dr Carey's rival prays the great specialist to exert his skill in freeing him from the bondage of the inexorable demon to whose sway he has fallen a victim was the occasion of a moving presentation of surging human emotions, and when the drinksodden man succumbs to the temptation and returns a nerve-racked, palsied wretch praying for yet one more 'chance to exhibit his worthiness for the woman beloved by the Physician Mr Came depicted with forceful artistic skill the triumph of the specialist's strong better rature over the tempter who would whisper to him to withdraw his sustaining hand from the pitiful human wreck. Altogether, the impersonation of the Plrysician was a masterful one, and in it Mr Came was seen at his best. Mr W. T. Lovell also had the advantage of frequent opportunities in tKe part of the dipsomaniac. His portrayal of the character was a strikingly realistic study of a man who had lost all grip of himself, and, despite the power of the love of one who was the loadstar of his life, had fallen a victim to the most relentless ol all tyrants — vice. The character of Walter Amphiel is one ot the moat pathetic — one of the most inexpressibly sad characters ever sketched by a dramatist. The soul of the man as he lay helpless m his thraldom is laid bare, and ' all its hideous depravities, all its dispairing feebleness, all its utter helplessness, are depicted with a force and realism that should make the strong shudder at- the prospect of a loss of self-control. The study might not only apply to the victim, of excessive alcoholism. It would apply with almost equal effect to the victim of any vice. In Mr Lovell' s hands the part was enacted with a skill and sustained force as to create a thrill of syrupathv in the audience for the poor moaning wretch who is ever striving to overcome the dread disease which enfiltrates his system. The reward for him, if success attends his struggle, is the greatest worldy reward that can be bestowed on any man — the love of a pure-minded, virtuous woman. He is ever stretching forth his hands to gain it, but the conviction grows on him day by day, with numb, half-conscious despair, that he seeks the unattainable. Hoping against hope, he gradually weakens, till eventually one more victim is added to the roll of the tyrant human vice. All this sad life history of human frailty found artistic expression at the hands of Mr Lovell, and his representation of the piteous appeals of the doomed man for the physician's help created a marked impression on those present. Mr Brough had a little, but a congenial and a distinctly engaging part in the Rev. Peregrine Hinde, and his natural, effective rendering of the fine. old happy-disposi-tioned vicar afforded a pleasant relief to the sombre aspects of the piece. Mrs Brough was also well cast as Lady Valeric Camville, and her representation of that light-minded, frivolous lady, who was ever horrified at the prospect of boredom and middle age, may be counted amongst her best performances. Mi&s Temple's portrayal of a young, trusting, lovable maiden, whore whole life's happiness is wrapped up in that of the drunkard, was received with marked demonstrations of favoxir, and at the scenes where she discovers the horrible secret of her lover's life she gave an exhibition of intensely powerful emotional acting. Messrs Majeroni, Dartrey, Victor, Misses Rochefort, Hanley, Martheze, Montgomery, Brown, and Matthews, and the other members of the company lent adequate assistance.

" LORD AND LADY ALGY."

'•Lord and Lady Algy," an original comedy m three acts, by R. C. Carton, was the title of the bill presented by the Brough Company to their patrons at Princess Theatre on Monday night. The patrons mustered in gocd force— in such foice, in fact, that there was very little spare seating room when the curtain rose. The piece is described as light comedy, but that designation, if not inaccuiate, is hardly complete. Of comedy there is plenty, of the farcical element there is a great deal, but there is also a graver aspect of the piece which is apt to lingpr afterwards, and leave a nasty taste in the mouth when the sparkling effervescence of gaiety and witty dialogue and humorous incident has finally subsided. Jlr Carton does not pretend to point a moral, or at anj' rate he appears not to do so, but the moral is there all the same, for he has titilised as the ground work of his scheme the weaknesses, the foibles, the laxity of views, the purposeless lives of people who live, move, and have their being in what is known as pociety. The supeistructuie on this foundation is m phi 00 " 15 flimsy, the veneer is thin, and in the occasional glimpse afforded of what is beneath, the hypocrisy, the deception, the unwhole°omenes c 3c 3 of the whole thing momentarily flashed through the bi-ain. These features aie, however, mere concomitants of the piece. The author does not dwell upon them. He does not draw a weighty lesson fiom them. He seems to say, " Those are tlie facts, let him who desires pause and consider them, and moralise on them." Wo will follow thp px.iivmle tbns pfWuded. It is not our piiryoff to di <\^ f n. onAs of certain phases of si >i"tv V\V n^urc with 'the author on this oc>-t 101., .. .m 1 \> <i towards the point of least icsis'nnce, In icfi\ il'=cnbing the comely features of Hip i> lfom pikl% v Inch piovided last night's .mchuico v>mh snr'n delightfu|l entertainment dniin<> Ibc of pome two hour? and a-half. Loid a^d Lady \lprernon Chetland sown to pn^-so.s • n..\> p'nclivitics in common, yet Ihry have liii.uilk agreed each to go lri& and hot w.w . i, tiny aro convinced of tke utter futility of iheii ovei hopina

to agree as to the precise brand of cigarettes they should srnake, or the horses which are most likely to carry off 'the events set forth in the programmes of the various race meetings throughout the year. Nevertheless they are on the best of terms, and while they laughingly chaff each other on their flirtations and their relations generally with members of the opposite sex, they in reality secretly desire to renew their former lives. Lord Algy has a " reputation," but although appearances are against him through his indifferences to the innuendos which are circulated concerning him and his professions of complaisancy at the indiscretions of others, he is really undeserving of the evil repute attached to his name. He is obliging enough, however, to allow his rooms to be made use of as a convenient place for his impressionable elder brother to carry on a flirtation with a romantic married" lady. The husband of the latter is a friend of Lord Algy, and knowing her predilection for the company of members of the other sex, enlists the aid of the young nobleman to watch her at, a fancy dress ball. My lord duly appears there' as the Duke of Marlborough, and having supped wisely, but not too well, winds up by being ordered to leave the premises. Meantime the husband of the romantic lady in question fixes his suspicion on his lordship, and calls at his house just after the former's good lady had arrived. The latter's mission was to meet Lord Algy's brother for the purpose of taking their flight to Italy. A tragic scene is witnessed when the husband (Brabazon Tudway) charges Lord Algy with having Mrs Tudway secreted in his house. Matters appear to be coming to a climax when Lady Algy appears on the scene, and with her woman's wit, if not with much regard to truth, declares that it was she that Mrs Tudway had to meet. The enraged husband is mollified, ho makes apologies all round) takes away his wife, and leaves Lord and Lady Algy to their reflections. The former has just been " cleaned out " financially by his speculations in horse racing. The latter has made several thousands. She offers him the money and herself, they heal their disagreements, and once more Lady Algy assumes control of her husband's household. The story, it will therefore be seen, is by no means involved, but it affords the author a means of crowding the piece with laughable and bewildering situations. As Lord Algy Mr Brough was afforded an opportunity of displaying not only his versatility in portraying humorous subjects, but his skill and power as an actor. His sketch of a drunken roysterer in the fancy dress ball was X^rovocative of unrestrained merriment, but the dawning consciousness -of his gentlemanly instincts when ordered to leave, his indignant surprise at being thus insulted, his sober resignation to the inevitable — all these emotions were depicted with admirable force. His acting in the subsequent scene, where he is charged with a liaison with a married lady, was also characterised by considerable power, and was received with spontaneous expression* of approval. Mrs Brough found a congenial part as the light-hearted, sporting, loving Lady Algy, who, although affecting a coldness of disposition towards her husband, really cherishes towards him a warm affection. Mrs Brough 1 s study of the character was in e\ery sense artistic, and will add to the pleasant memories play-goers will associate with her performances an Dunedin. As Mr Brabazon Tudway, the jealous husband,' Mr M. Majeroni was afforded many opportunities, of which Tic took full advantage. Miss Grace Noble gave an artistic impersonation of a romantic, lightheaded woman; Mr Lovell did full justice to the part of an impressionable, empty-headed young lord; while other parts were well taken by Messrs Darlrey, Pringle, P. Brough, and M'lntyre. Mr Brough desires to acknowledge his appreciation of tEe services rendered during the second act by Messrs Campbell (Mr Anneslev), Ainers (Mr Denton), Smith, Moreton, M'Dowell. Daniels, and Watt, membeis o£ the Dunedin Roscius Amateur Dramatic Club.