A GREAT ACTOR

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 986, 31 May 1930, Page 26

A GREAT ACTOR

An Australian’s Tribute to William Faversham “THE HAWK” A GOOD PLAY Let it be said at once that “The Hawk” is one of the best constructed and most arresting dramas seen in Melbourne since the war; and that I William Faversham, an Anglo-Ameri-j can actor with “old school” instincts, |is worthy successor to the select ! few whose names have been woven j into the traditions of the boards, i writes an Australian critic. | Theatregoers who cling, somewhat | uncertainly at times, to the belief that even a theatrical trough must be folj lowed by a crest, will feel grateful to | The Firm, and to the company which jis interpreting this new play at The | Comedy, for having provided such a

convincing answer to the parrot cry, “What is wrong with the theatre?” The answer, if we may judge by “The Hawk,” is an emphatic “Nothing.” Unquestionably “The Hawk” is one of the “right” plays to which Mr Faversham referred in a curtain speech. Compared with many others which we have suffered in the last year or two, it is as a gem among tinsel. And no one who enjoyed the superb artistry of William Faversham and the finished support of a remarkably even company could deny that the right people were playing it. “The Hawk” is the Hungarian Count George de Dazetta, a blue-blooded card-sharping adventurer, whose prey is found in the most exclusive circles of Paris and other Continental cities. The fortunes he amasses at the tables he lavishes upon his fascinating and extravagant wife, who discovers how hateful is the gambling business when she and Rene de Tierrache, Dazetta's best friend, fall in love with each other. Tierrache detects the pair cheating, and his subsequent “show down” with the Countess is followed by a demand that she must leave Dazetta at once. She refuses, but after a dramatic scene with her husband, in which she reveals their discovery, her disgust with their mode of living, and her affection for his friend, Dazetta leaves her to her fate. In France, however, a husband must consent to his wife's divorce, and Dazetta disappears. When he is discovered some months later by the “President Wilson” of the drama, one Eric Drakon, a wealthy American, he is down and out. He meets Tierrache at Dfakon’s apartment, and consents to the divorce on one condition —that his wife shall ask him for it. The climax is intensely dramatic, and. for a French play, surprising. William Faversham was a sheer delight. It was a flawless and inspired piece of acting in a drama full of colour. Opposite him was the new American leading lady, Ann Davis, who scored a personal triumph. She made the countess a beautiful, appealing and emotional figure, and her filial scenes witli her husband and her lover linger in the memory. Miss Davis has a delightfully musical voice, and those who, expected traces of a talkie blemish were pleasantly disappointed. As the ardent young man who is so anxious to save her, Frank Leighton was consistently good. So also was Herbert Leigh, the American “mediator,” through whose agency tragedy was averted. The evsr-re-liable G. Kay Souper, as the elderly Marquis de Sardeloup, gave one of his best impersonations.