“BELLA DONNA.”

Otago Witness, Issue 3019, 24 January 1912, Page 67

“BELLA DONNA.”

MRS PAT CAMPBELL AS BELLA DONNA. Those of us who have breathed the ail’ of the desert with Hitchens in ‘‘ The Garden of Allah ” and “Bella Donna” have rejoiced at the success of the dramatic version of the former work in New York Now comes particulars of the success of the premier production in London of “ Bella Donna,” with tho following cast: Dr Meyer Dsacson •••... George Alexander The Hon. Nigel Armine '... Charles Maude. Mahoud Baroudi Charles Bryant. Ibraham Sh&l Barry. Mrs Chepstow Mrs Patrick Campbell. Mrs Marchmont ••• Mary Grey. Both as manager and us actor Sir George Alexander is to bo heartily congratulated upon his latest production at tho St. James’s Theatre. In tho picturesque and powerful “ Bella Donna ” of Mr Hichons, as adapted for the stage by Mr Fagan, he has given us a drawing-room melodrama of exceptional grip, and in Mr s Patrick Camptsell ho has secured the one actress whom we could imagine realising for us Bella Donna’s voluptuous viciousness and callous charms (says a London critic). For himself Sir George has provided the opportunity for displaying at its best tho tactful strength of the hand of iron which wears a velvet glove. All lyondon. will go to see the thrilling duel over poisoned cups of coffieo fought out inch by inch between tlio wife who at her paramour’s instigation is slowly murdering her husband and the fashionable physician as glorified detective prevents the consummation of the crime.

That all London will find it pleasing as well as interesting is perhaps not to be

said. The good play is written round a. bad woman—a woman so appallingly and revoltingly bad that she musses the sympathy which one likes to feel fitfully even for the sinner. The prologue in Dr Meyer Isaacson’s consulting room does nothing more than indicate adroitly the undesirability of the shady Mrs Chepstow as fiancee for the doctor’s simple-minded, chivalrous young friend Armine. The next act plunges Mrs Chepstow, now Mrs Armine, into her career of flagrant crime, first as mistress of Baroudi, the splendid Egyptian, who has captivated her by his animal appeal to her passion, ia.nct ithen) as his pupil in the fine art ox murder. But though one feels some links in the chain to be missing one cannot fail to.recognise the strength of the chain as a whole. After starting with undue deliberation the action, when once it starts, rivets the attention of the spectator till the curtain final]" falls. We watch with horror Bella Donna’s tacit acceptation of her flamboyant lover’s suggestion of his sinister scheme for getting her inconvenient husband out of their wicked way. We listen with added disgust to her cold-blooded report of the slow progress of Armine’s gradual poisoning by the aid of her accomplice Hamza, the servant, sent to 'her by Baroudi. That report is made in surroundings—the ruined temple on the hill, —the picturesque beauty of which seem s to accentuate the ugliness of the assignation, just as later on the delights of tho dahabeoah with its wonderful setting emphasise the melodramatic sensation of the discovery of the baleful use to which they are being put. It is by making himself, on board the luxurious Doulia, the guest of the reluctant Mrs Armine that Isaacson confirms his suspicions of the fate being engineered for his unhappy friend. Tho whole situation is admirably managed, and if there is something a trifle tricky about the device by which the murdress is made to give herself away while talking in her sleep, tho general effect is none the less striking in. its shuddering influence upon tho imagination. Moreover, even after this triumph of thrill, the danger of anti-climax is avoided. Tho husband as well as the friend has to be convinced of the wife's infamy, and she herself has to be punished by the most contemptuous sentence ever formulated fora base passion’s baser crime. It would bo difficult, jf not impossible, to better either the aptitude of the performance or the illustrative skill of the socnib illustration. Mrs Patrick Campbell as tho serpent of the new Nile hiais exactly the snaky fascination needed for a Bella Donna’s guilty grace. She seems at home in all the hateful creature’s moods, -whether of insolent defiance or of submissive passion, of hypocritical craft, of callous cruelty, or of defiant despair. She instinctively causes her morbid psychology to enhance the meaning of her melodrama, and she makes one feel that if there ever really was a Bella Donna it must certainly have been. she. A better foil for her than. Sir George’s Jewish physician with his subtly sustained professional air throughout his doings as ciotectivo could not possibly be desired. This is tho best effort of impersonation that we have had from Sir George for a long time, and -among his colleagues also to score a noteworthy mark are Mr Charles Maude, wP>h his handling of the thankless role of the husband, and Mr Sbiel Barry, with hia life-like embodiment of the ami liny, cooing, soft-footed Egyptian attendant Ibraham. With Mr Brvant, Miss Mary Grey, and Mr Athol Stewart all doing good work, there is not a weak place in the whole cast; while as to the realisation of tho atmosphere. the colour, and the^ sound of life as it is lived on tho Nile, it falls not far short, of perfection. “Bella Donna” is a play to see. and not to have seen it will be to have missed the chief theatrical topic of to-day.