THE ENGLISH STAGE: SEASON OF 1910.

Otago Witness, Issue 2924, 30 March 1910, Page 88

THE ENGLISH STAGE: SEASON OF 1910.

[ By Maorilanda.

\ "Dame Nature," as given at the Garrick I Theatre, with Miss Ethel Irving in the title role, is a noteworthy play, because it [ is: the first of the season, having been j pushed ahead of "Dr Jekyll . and Mr Hyde," to say nothing of thatinteresting Irishman, O'Flynn, by a bare night or two. Is it for this reason that the theatre is full night after night" One is almost driven to hope that it is novelty alone that fills the seats, and that a speedy withdrawal may be necessary, for "Dame Nature" shows no ideals, and the spectator leaves the theatre feeling besmirched rather than stronger and better, the wider in knowledge" and understanding, ! "ioi-what has passed. Who would willingly meet such people as. are here portrayed? I Robert Bertram, the snobbish artist, who knows not the meaning ,of the word "loyalty"; his so-called friends, the intriguing, selfish Princess, and the degenerate "shell of an aristocrat," her husband, whom she has purchased with her unbounded wealth! This man's cynicism, I his contempt of the world he knows, and of himself, is one of the few redeeming features in the play. What is the meaning of it ail? we are driven to ask. Why is this "slice of life" (if life it be) laid "before us? Why did Henrv -Bataille strive to write it and Frederick Fenn care to translate?

Loiette herself, meant to appeal to the audience as a "natural woman caught in the vortex of the artificialities of a modern age, 'is not another Trilby True, she has a power of love, but it is not the love that helps her to rise or calls forth the best in those around her; here is no sweet winsomeness, no spontaneous joy, no simplicity. Instead,, we are -shown a woman swayed by impulse, ill-disciplined, lacking natural "dignity and self-control, humble when she might be proud, proud when humbleness would be in case, madly jealous and fiercely tenacious of her rights. Now for the actual story. The first scene opens in a French cafe, and shows Robert Bertram waiting fc>r news as to who has won the coveted medaille d'honneur. With him is Loiette, the model from whom he has painted the nude picture upon which his hopes rest. Friends come and friends go, bringing news of the various ballots—how this man has voted, how that, —and excitement runs high. Amid it is heard the talk of the studios, but it is not the talk of high enthusiasm, of art for art's sake; rather, the talk of the gutter without the studio door—models and theii changing loves—the heartless underside of it all. If this be the life of those who dwell within the magic circle of Art, training there costs ioo dear. Then comes.the news that Bertram has won the coveted distinction; and his comrades surge around him, forgetting in their excitement the older man who has been and whose disappointment is his death blow In the exuberance of his joy Bertram turns to Loiette' and announces his determination of marrying her and ending the irregular life they have been living together. The curtain falls upon her gratitude, and reminiscences of how they have starved together and apart —she begging in the gutters, he eating scraps found, upon the doorsteps. Some time elapses between the first and second acts, and in the latter the Bertrams are shown at a house-warming in their English home, :or he has become a fashionable portrait painter. Bertram is asking a friend to help him keep guard ever Loiette, who has not "risen with me," and of whom he is unfeignedly ashamed. Do men, whatsoever their nationality, ever talk in such way of their wives? Alas for human nature if this be real!

Lolette appears, radiant in pink chiffon, awkward in movement, anxious as to procedurue, careless of langnuage, but certainly equal to her husband in her manner to her guests. While she is superintending the dancing in the studio the Princess De Chabran (who has been sitting for her portrait) pays a surprise visit, and Bertram, carried off

his feet by the fact that she is a Princess, her seductive manner and the perfection of her diamond-decked, pearl-hung costume, makes violent love to her. This is interrupted by LoleFte, but the Princess, seeing her enter, changes the conversation in such a "way that the wife can tell nothing, though her suspicions are keenly aroused. When the two women are left alone for a moment, Lolette flings herself upon the mercy of her rival, avows her passionate love for Robert, and asks that they shall be let alone. The Princess meets the appeal with apparent openness and an occasional touch of veiled raillery. As Bertram returns to lead the Princess to the studio the door opens to admit one James Ridgeway, and the cowering Lolette is obliged to face the man from whom Bertram had "taKen her " Knowing all, Bertram had invited him to the house. Outraged, Lolette turns upon her husband, but Bertram scoffs at her, and turns from the room to attend the Princess, leaving Lolette with Ridgeway, who, it appears, has come to tell her that if ever she needs a friend he is at her service.

The scene ends in a passionate outbreak of hysterics on Lolette's part, brought on by the overstrain of the evening, Ridigeway's appearance, and the new stir of feeling concerning the Princess. Her shivering cry, "I feel so alone, so cold, so cold!" rang, through the house, the first touch' of poignant feeling to be aroused. The curtain descends as the somewhat moved- but obviously exasperated Robert carries the sobbing woman up-stairs. The third act is supposed to be the master scene of the play, and it opens to disclose the Prince and his lawyer drafting the conditions of divorce. They are interrupted by Lolette, who comes to make appeal that the Prince will join forces with her, and so, aided by scandal, prevent there being flung aside by Bertram and the Princess. But the Prince views the matter in no such light. The Princess had purchased him with her money; if she be tired of her bargain she must pay again for release ; 'tis all a question of price. Lolette leaves him after a passionate outbreak, in which she avows her intention of fighting to the death for husband and love: "Not his love—that is dead, —but my love for him!" She igoes.. The Princess enters, and there follows a scene of barter. The Prince wants £2o,ooo—and gets it. The securities, too, must be scrutinised ; the interest they bear considered, and arrangements made concerning the furniture. Before all is adjusted Bertram is announced, and the Prince waits to greet him and touch his hand before he bows his final farewell to his wife and goes tottering from the room, bowed by age and decay, kept alive by drugs, but courteously contemptuous of himself and them. Now Bertram is shown, torn by conflictikfj? forces. He finds the sight of Lolette's srrief hard to bear, 'hut his desire for the Princess is strong. In vain he has offered to remain Lolette's officiid husband if she will but countenance his .liaison with the Princess. In vain lie now appeals to the Princess to allow the conventions to reign and passion to have full play, She answers that she loves him. a&i brings him to her feet. Of course, Lolette again, appears at this juncture, and tjhere follows yet another unbridled, brutal scene, Lolette alternately raging and imploring or sobbinig out intimate details regarding Bertram's shirts as she clings, sobbing, to his feet. Then the Princess, seeing Bertram, wavering, scornfully passes him his hat and. gloves. Lolette catches his answering look, and springs to her feet with a scream. For her the fight is over. She seats herself at the writing table, and, repudiating the Princess's offer of money, writes a line to her lawyer saying that she desires the divorce, then leaves the room wherein stand Bertram and the Princess at opposite sides of the table. And so the play ends, leaving the mind filled with questionings. True, there is another act, in which Ridgeway returns to seek Lolette, and she goes .way with him (surely anti-climax!), but this does not affect the play as a whole. Can this degrading passion rightly be termed "love" ? For what did these two women fight? What trait was there in Bertram to stir them? Why was such a play written? Why produced? And the worst feature of the whole story is that in the double entendre the audience :eems to find wit? True, we are told that the play is tyr>ically French, and asked to adjust our minds to the Gallic point of view. But even in French plavs there are usually some elevating circumstances, some streaks of truth, some reality to chain attention and make men think.. Here what is there ? It is a relief to turn from it +o consider the' renertoire of Sarah" Bernhardt with her gallery" of heroines, th«ir frailties, their passions, and their truth. Li all the most convincing' there is a touch of the divine fire. Be their love asrainst the code, at least it is love, with its infinite capacity for self-sacrifice—not this low thing socalled bv Robert Bertram, the Princess De Chabran, and even by Lolette!