MARIE TEMPEST'S FAILURE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 16114, 1 May 1923, Page 10

MARIE TEMPEST'S FAILURE.

The mystery of the failure of "Good Gracious, Annabolle," with which Marie Tempest opened her season on her return to London, writes tin English correspondent, remains unsolved!, and will now in all probability never be .solved at all, as, the play is to be withdrawn from tho Duke of York's on Tuesday. At the O.P. Club dinner, given at the Cecil last Sunday night in honor of Miss Mario Tempest's return, it was the theme of all the speeches. Mr. Israel Zaugwill, from the chair, paid Miss Tempest courtly compliments as '' the greatest of English comediennes," and expressed his delight at having her for the evening as the guest of tho club, "untrammelled by a play," but he made singularly little effort to conceal his opinion of " Annabelle." If we wanted bad plays, ho said, we preferred our own particular brand of English badness; hut the genius and personality of Miss Tempest wore quite capable of carrying off oven a good play.

Miss Mario Tempest's speech consisted, for the most part, of as brief and businesslike a defence of her choice as she might have given in a court of law. "Anabelle,." she said, she had seen played in Now York, where it was the success of the season. "Annabelle" had been played by her on her world tour everywhere with as great, or greater, success than that of her comedies by Mr. Somerset Maugham, Mr. Milne, and her other authors. "Annabelle" had been tried on "the Cardiff dog," and again on "the Brighton dog." Sho at least had concrete reason for thinking "Annabelle" would bo appreciated in London. Which statement means that the mystery is now insoluble. The rest of the world can console themselves by thinking that Londoners need the services of a psycho-analyst, and Londoners are at liberty to think the same about the rest of the world."