AN ENGLISH LOVE STORY

Taranaki Daily News, 9 November 1932, Page 9

AN ENGLISH LOVE STORY

“BARRETTS OF WIMPOLE STREET.”

EARLY VICTORIAN DRAMA.

“Tis an awkward thing to play with souls, „ And matter enough to eave ones own.

■So sang Robert Browning in the days when fame had come to him and he had won the bride whose courtship and other family happenings make up-Ru-dolph Besier’s play, “'The Barretts of Wimpole Street,” which'was-presented by Messrs J. C. Williamson Dtd. at the New Plymouth Opera House last night. - • .*■ It was because the father .qf Brown--, ing’s lady had failed to learn that the souls of his children were theirs and not his that tragedy is never far away from the chapters in Victorian life which make up the play. Though it is not true in detail to the history of the love of the two poets, Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning, there is sufficient of that story in. the play to please even ardent. admirers of the Brownings and to make it of'absorbing interest to those who-'can claim little acquaintance with the lives and the works of the two poets. In a way it is a satire upon the inflexible .parental authority of those early Victorian days. It says much for the skill of the presentation 'that in an audience to which such authority was an anachronism the satire was neyer .'allowed Jttri became caricature —that is to say, caricature that depended upon .broad humour for Its effects. Mr. , Besier’s play is a caricature in the sense that Dickens chai - acters were caricatured—the weaknesses, the harshness and the loveableness of the characters are emphasised to make them the more apparent than ordinary acquaintance might revea|.. A play that lives and moves arid- has its being in the stuffy sickroom Of a neurotic young woman might easily have become mawkish. In the hands of the excellent company which appeared last night there was nothing cloying, about the weakest of the characters,;, and if tragedy was ever lurking near humoui was there as well. The story of the play is the wooing of Elizabeth. Barrett, the sickly daughter of Edward! Moulton-Barrett. of Wimpole Street, London. Edward is a man of tonnage in the City of London, and at home a tyrant who treats his grown-up family as though they were children in the nursery, will have nothing of love or marriage in bis house. His daughters think, otherwise, and the which arise make up the play. •Into the sickroom of Elizabeth, apparently in the last stages of a /’decline,” comes Robert Browning, handsome, debonair man of' letters, and man about town, too. He-has corresponded with Elizabeth., on their mutual efforts at poesy but has . never met her in person. His vivid personality overwhelms Elizabeth. Ho refuses to believe that recovery is impossible, and as the result of falling in love with Browning Elizabeth finds herself

'"Strengthened 'by love: love —not ser-

enely pure, ■But strong from weakness, like a chance sown plant, Which cast on stubborn soil, puts forth

changed buds, , • And softer stains, unknown in happier

climes.” : (Perhaps his courtship days prompM Browning to those lines! At all events the “soil” ’was stubborn enough at. Wimpole 'Street. 111-health, fear of a father’s wrath, the greater fear that in accepting Browning’s devotion she would prove a stumbling block to his career—all these are swept;. aside by the strength of Browning’s passion. But it was the exercise of her father s tyranny over her sister’s love, affair® which made the Elizabeth Barrett oi the play become the wife of Browning, io quote her husband again it was: “Love’s undoing . , Taught me the worth of love in man s And what proportion love should hold with power, ,• In his right constitution. The play ends with tyranny thwarted 'but still vengeful, and a father bereft of the ohly child, .to whom he had ever shown«the tenderer side oi his nature. . Miss Margaret Rawlings as Elizabeth Barrett Moulton-Barrett did not act the part—she lived it during last nights performance, and’ as she was scarcely ever out of the scene hers was no-email undertaking. It was a restrained; but forceful interpretation of a character that until awakened by love was frail and almost top weary to put up a fight for life. The growth from invalidism to a more normal life, the struggle between passion and unselfishness and the final abandonment of all old standards was finely portrayed.; She was ably seconded by Mr. 'Barry K. Barnes as’Robert Browning. His interpretation ' was excellent. The breezy, somqwliat superior literary man; conscious of his powers’ and certain that recognition would come some day, became the adoring lover, and Mr. Barnes made it appear natural that he should. • , Mr. E. (Bellenden Clarke as Edward Moulton-Barrett, the stern, .unyielding parent, had perhaps the hardest task in the play. To portray pomposity and unyielding dignity without making it ludicrous or absurd required (high, artistry. Mr. Clarke’s characterisation was really remarkable, and. in .the tense moments when he ' confessed his temptations and failures to the daughter,.- who was even then preparing, to leave him, the combination of hungry heart and iron self-will and self-command was finely portrayed. Mr. Kenneth Brampton >as an oldtime physician with a “good bedroom manner,” Mr. Harvey Adams as a doctor who was terser in his comments to parents were very happy in their interpretations. So also were Miss Mary

Cobb and Mr. Gabriel Toyne as Bella Hedley and Henry Bevan, the niece of Edward Moulton-Barrett and hex Mary Macgregor, as Elizabeth’s sister Henrietta, had 1 an important share in the story. Her wooing byJCap* tain Surtees-Brook (Mr. Richard Fair) was . ruthlessly interrupted by her domineering father, and though she. was forced to give- way to-his Henrietta was sufficiently'brave-to sympathy of the audience and Miss Macgregor clever enough to earn its Katherine Goodall ae. the inaid ‘Wilson,” and Noel.’Boyd, John Wood, Richard Fair, Leslie Jones, John A»l- < der, Michael Hagan and Harvey Adams all played the minor parts, with skill. The cast was no “one star” company. Every member-filled his or her part in a manner which made the story live. Not the least of the pleasure of the performance was in. the perfect enunciation of English which characterised every member of the.company.