"THE WOMAN IN THE CASE."

Otago Witness, Issue 3014, 20 December 1911, Page 67

"THE WOMAN IN THE CASE."

Dramatic productions have been locally somewhat few andl far between of late, and the season inaugurated at His Majesty's Theatre on the 14th under the auspices of J. C. Williamson (Ltd.) should be the more welcome accordingly. Considering the irresistible attraction which a general election second ballot night provides for ordinary human nature the audience was of larger dimensions than one would have expected. The play produced, '.' The Woman in the Case," by Clyde Fitch, may be summed up as a. strong melodrama of the better class. It has the venear.that is to say of restraint, and does not too violently outrage the probabilities. It is sensational without any great degree of violence in the action.- There is murder in the air, but none upom the stage. As in a number of these American dramas, the element of suspense is utilised to the limit of its possibilities. Everybody knows of course that the shadow will be lifted from the innocent in due course, but the interest is not the less held and sustained on that account. The dialogue is incisive and very much to the point. Of the purely superfluous in the; way of verbiage there is an agreeable paucity, and the "curtains" to the various acts aire skilfully approached and undeniably effective. With such lapses as there are into purely melodramatic sentiment or hysteria there need be no quarrel. Accentuation in parts is admittedly a necessary feature of plays of this kind, in which contrasts are purposely intensified so that high lights and dark shadows may predominate. In character drawing again such a play is typically somewhat superficial. There aire no really strong outstanding types in 'The Woman in the Case." The incidents and the plot in\ which the characters figure are relied upon to provide sufficient interest, and the general verdict will certainly be that they amply suffice. The aspect of life to which those parts of the play in which the inevitable "woman" figures introduce the audience scarcely call for any special comment. The brazen adventuress type is too common on the stage to cause any new sensation, and it need only be said that as she figures in ' The Woman in the Case" her wickedness, the quality of which ia understood, is not dramatically flaunted in a way that need offend, being suggested by little more than confession, swagger, and a fine capacity for the cup that sparkles, tainly of exciting character. As to the excellence with which " The Woman in the Case " is staged there is no question, and the all-round quality of the acting is a feature of the production. The cast of principals is an undeniably strong one, and the members of the company I make excellent use of opportunities of a kind not always thoroughly exploited. One of the heaviest parts is that taken by Miss Mabel Trevor as Margaret Rolfe, whose husband is arrested on a false charge of murder. Miss Trevor's acting reached an admirable standard throughout. The impersonation is one of a woman whose implicit faith in her husband is ever seeking expression, and the actress unquestionably realised the effect aimed at. Her work was natural and entirely unconstrained—perhaps a little more subtlety here or there might have improved it by way of contrast—and loud applause greeted " her efforts at the close of the first and second acts, which were of strong emotional order. The episode with which the third act, really the climax of the play, concludes is somewhat inartistic and hysterical, the responsibility for this, however, resting with the playwright. The title part, that of the unscrupuloiis Clare Forster, was taken by Miss Elinor Foster. Miss Foster's entrance in the second act is not very happily arranged for, and placed the actress* initially somewhat at a disadvantage, the dialogue provided being unnecessarily cheap and trivial. However, in the striking third act, in which Mrs Rolfe, posing as a companion after the adventuress's own heart, entertains her at supper, plies her with champagne, and wins her confidence and the secret which proves her husband's innocence, Miss Foster looked and played her part with admirable resource and skill, especially seeing that it is never a very helpful speaking part, saving in the one dramatic outburst of the confession. The character of Julian Rolfe, the ill-used husband, is superficially drawn, and in presenting it Mr Gerald K. Souper had little more to do than give a straightforward, manly impersonation, a matter which gave him no difficulty _ whatever. Distinctly better in its possibilities is the prominent role of the lawyer, Thompson, who has the handling of the intricate, and at first apparently hopeless, case for the defence, and one certainly does not remember to have seen Mr Hugh C. Buckler ever acquit himself to better advantage on the local stage. The impersonation of the friendly lawyer, at first doubting but afterwards convinced of the innocence of his client

stood out prominently on its merits, and Mr Buckler's acting was particularly pleasing in its light and shade, and in the effectiveness with which the utterance suggested the mental process behind it. Miss Nellie Mortyno, it is hardly necessary to say, fully realised her stage opportunities. On this occasion she took the part of a comfortable matron, and her "mpersonation, with its dash of bustling humour, could not have been improved upon. Mr Arthur Cornell was amusing in the extravagant role of one Klauffsky, who writes cheques for the woman in the case. Mr H. Halley's quiet and portly butler was quite the thing, and Messrs J. Do Lacy, Martyn Keith, and J. Brennan filled small parts very adequately. Misses Violet Paget, Jennie Pollock, and Florence Grotton, as a trio of handsomely-gowned society girls, introduced the drama very brightly and • effectively to the audience. The latter accorded the play a demonstratively appreciative reception, and the curtain'had to be raised half a dozen times after it had fallen on the exciting incident of the third act before the applause subsided.