THE COLONIST. Published Every Morning. Monday, March 15, 1909. "AN ENGLISHMAN'S HOME."

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12488, 15 March 1909, Page 2

THE COLONIST. Published Every Morning. Monday, March 15, 1909. "AN ENGLISHMAN'S HOME."

•• ■ ■ -V ■ ■• . *~. - - ' . ' ■ ' •The history of the English, stage of repeat years supplies no parallel to the oxtraprdinary success of "An Englishman's Home," which on its. appear.'iiiici'.ct Wyndham's Theatre.^ London, >?^fc..v ;io:l-:s ego, was nightly greeted : v.v \v wsthusiasm that astonished the v;.T.:c::r . The popularity of the. play iV.it.. noi, accountable to' any special .merit of the play itself j as a writer in -"i'He Times" said, : the thing is crude ehoughy and .indeed somewhat amateurishly done. "What -is i significant,": he continues, "is that the thing should have been' done, at all." "Ail Englishman's Home" was pre"sented.'at aii opportune' moment ; when the appeal for recruits for the Terri:to'rial army : was at its jstrpngest pitch, and when the nation was thoroughly roused oh the defence question. The reception of the play shows hotv deeply .the. people of England are interested in national" defence at: present. The 'production is well described by the ■writer already alluded to: Here is a : play all about our national shortcomings, our lack of niiljtary. defence, and, still more,' oiir "habit of pooh-pooliing any endeavours towards : reform. The ignorance of our Volunteer troops and the incompetence of -their officers, all ; the helplessness that comes from lack of training, and direction — these things are held up to the 'scorn of the pit. Most remarkable feature of all, this play is absolutely made up of "public questions"; attempt at a story in the ordinary sense, at any plot,- af any love 'interest, there is virtually none. There is Mr Brown, -the typical English ratepayer, whose "house Is • liis castle," and who is boiling over with indignation because both the contend-

ing armies have had the effrontery to turn this "castle" of his into a'"strategic position," and that too without asking his leave. Amid all the pillage and carnage he goes to look for a policeman. There is young Mr Smith, the typical surburban "bounder," who spends his life at football matches, knows the names of all players by heart, and looks upon Volunteering as "silly rot," and there is Mr Robinson, the quiet, earnest "Volunteer, who finds it impossible to convince the others that able-bodied Englishmen have something else to do just now than play at games (even the portly Mr Brown plays diabolo), and who- is rallied by all the girls of the household because his uniform is not "becoming." And so they are- all wrangling and chaffing and reading sporting papers and generally, in their own phrase, "rotting" when— enter two stern, gentlemen in foreign . uni-. forms.' The Englishman's (Essex), house is occupied by an advance party "of invaders, the. army of the "Empress of the North" ! From this moment -the grotesque, rather squalid, farce of, the thing is turned to grini 1 horror. Of course, the main lines of this sort oi thing hav£ been- familial" enough- eyei. since i'The Battle of Dorking"; snug English domesticity is suddenly to be brought face to face with the horrors of war. There is the whistling of bullets and the scream of shells;, slangy Mr Smith, in the very act of perpetrating more Cockney jokes, falls dead with a bullet through the heart/ But that is only an in the author's general scheme of contrasting the efficiency of the untrained English Volunteer with the iron discipline and masterly organisation of the invaders. Our men don't 'know how to take the range or how to shoot without exposing themselves, don't know on what flank the enemy' is, don't know anything. '. . By-and-bye the order comes for them to retire, but Mr Brown, indignant with Englishmen for ever retreating before a foreign foe, declaresthat he, ; at any rate, will stay. The shells are knocking his "castle" to pieces, and a kind of frenzy possesses him. ;He snatches up a'rifle, and does not knpw how to use it j then finds out the way, and shoots one of the enemy. Quickly overpowered, he is summarily ordered to be shot, as a civilian found in arms. (Thjs particular incident is quite well done, by the way, so well clone as to suggesta classic little storj :>f Maiipassant on the same theme.) Is his daughter is wailing over his. ;orpse: there is a distant sound of bag-., It appears that the British Army has been rapidly brought up in wainsj' .motor busses, anything; and he invaders are caught in a trap. •-.Pith "this final solace to 'our national .mour propre— after all, a. theatrical .udience is human — this remarkable little play comes to an end.