A NOTABLE PLAY.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 14343, 22 October 1910, Page 7

A NOTABLE PLAY.

“THE PASSING OF THE THIRD FLOOR BACK.” To those who know' Mr. Jerome K. Jerome only as the humourist who wrote “Three Men in a Boat,” it may perhaps come as a surprise to find in him the author of sucli a play as was presented to a good audience in the Theatre Royal last night by the I’lim-mer-Denniston Dramatic Company. Even those who arc acquainted with Mr. Jerome’s work in a vein more serious than that of “Three Men in a Boat” can be pardoned for being unprepared for such a play as “The Passing of the Third Floor Back.” Although plays with “missions” have not been unknown of late years, there has been none quite like this. It may bo described as a mystical morality play; a play with a real message that strikes deeper because it is not put forward with an avowed mission, it is a play in which Mr. Jerome, with the skill of a really great literary and dramatic artist, deftly lays bare the sham and mockery of not a little of modern life, and then shows how the hollowness of it can be transformed into a rich, mellow joy in life by submission to the “better self. Judged by modern dramatic conventions, Mr. Jerome has been greatly daring, not only in the writing of a play with such a plot, but his return to an older form of drama in which acts and scenes are discarded in favour of prologue, play (in one act), and epilogue. But Ids craftsmanship has proved so artistic and yet so natural, his mingling of satire, humour, and mysticism has been so successful, and the whole is so convincing, that after seeing it one can understand why it is that “The Passing of the Third Floor Back” has been such a success since its first production in London, by Mr. Forbcs-Piobcrtson, two years ago. The scene is laid in a London lodging house which, the landlady says, is for the acrommodation only of persons of the upper middle class. The audience is shown the cheating, the lying, the scandal-making, and all the evil in the life of the company therein assembled, consisting as it does of a cheat (the landlady), a “painted lady,” a shrew, a snob, a bully, a hussy, a satyr, a coward, a cad, a rogne ; and a slavey. To this precious collection there enters “a passer-by,” who becomes “the third floor back,” or, in other words, the occupant of the back room on the third floor of the lodging house. Although, as the audience realises later, the “passer-by” knows the characters of these people even to their innermost thoughts, and is fully acquainted with their past lives, ho betrays no hint of this knowledge to thorn, but acccplr, them at a valuation based upon all the innate goodness there is in mankind, with utter disregard of the badness. To them he describes himself as a wanderer, and allows them at first to take him as a simpleton upon whom all may impose. The landlady, Mrs. Sharpe (the cheat) on their first interview, overcharges him shamefully, and the rogue, Jako Samuels, a'Jew sharper of the City, tries to sell him shares in a worthies."] “silver mine.” He finds in Major Tompkins, a retired military man (M'Bully), and in his wife (the shrew) a couple whoso first wedded bliss has turned into acidulous quarrelling and nagging. Their daughter Vivian (the hussy) is being driven by her father’s tactics, her wretched home life, and her own wilful beedlessncss to her own inner voice, into marriage with a rich retired bookmaker, Joey 'Wright (tho satyr), old enough to be her grandfather, whose love for her at the opening of the play is purely sensual. Vivian really reciprocates the love of a young artist, Christopher Fenny (tho coward), who has loft his'earlier training that art should bo good as well as beautiful to paint pictures utterly unworthy* of his talents. Somewhat similar in type to the artist is the cad, Harry Larkson, ■who, although really a lino musician, has prostituted his talents to vulgar applause, and has become a jackal to the Jew sharper. In addition to these the Passer-by finds two ladies, Miss Ivito (tho painted lady) and Mrs. Percival do Hooley (the snob), who arc leading empty lives of scandal and foolishness. In ’Stasia (tho slavey), a parentless child fyom an industrial school, who knows not who her father was, the mysterious stranger finds a girl who sees the “rottenness,” as she puts it, of tho life around her more clearly than her fellows, but nevertheless is almost ready to throw' away her self-respect for tho sake of a couple of trumpery gewgaws. It is not by preaching that the “Passer-by” drives to tho hearts and minds of these people a realisation of the mockery and tho hollowness of their lives,'but by a trust in their flaunted honour, goodness, and purity which is childlike in its innocence, and in this very quality of childnature hints at the holy nature of tho “Passor-by.” To ono or two of the lodging-house company is vouchsafed a hint of tho real personality of the stranger, but it is only when they have been gently led to follow their own better solves. To tho others he appears as a human being, strange in his innocence and trustfulness, but still a human being. By showing them that ho considers them ladies and gentlemen, and by their own realisation of his nobility of mind and soul, they realise that even in themselves there is still good, they see tho beauty of tho stranger’s life, and they are led to live honest and kindly lives. This dramatic transformation is carried out with such remarkable skill that tho quickness with which it is effected is lose sight of entirely in its splendid naturalness. To describe tho plot more fully would take up far more space than wo can afford. To tho audience there but remains tho question, Who is tho passorby, who, after ho has wrought such a wondrous change in tho lives of the inmates of tee lodging-houso, passes out of their lives as quietly and as mysteriously as ho entered ? The dramatist has left this question unanswered in actual words, thereby heightening the mysticism of this remarkable play, and at the same time freeing the play entirely from any trace of irreverence. But from tho time when ho enters, with his shepherd’s crook-like stick, to the time ho leaves, the audience is gradually led to a dim idea that it is the “Bettor Self” of mankind in human guise, tho worldly representation of the Shepherd of Souls, the Christ Himself I

It is a play that calls for groat skill in its presentation, and this skill was forthcoming last night. Nothing but unqualified praise can rightly be given to the members, of tho company for the splendid way in which they portrayed their parts. It was a triumph of artistic and yet natural and effective acting, with not a single deviation or slip from a high standard of dramatic art. When such is said it- becomc-s unnecessary to individualise tho actors and actresses to any extent. A word, however, must bo said for Mr. Harry Plimmer’s lofty and forcible presentation of the role of tho “Passor-by,” a presentation that was marked by exceeding dignity and effectiveness, in which nil the nobility, tho mysticism, and tho love

for mankind of tho part are preserved in their entirety, without the slightest hint of staginess or “preachiness.” Another word must bo said for the splendid acting of Miss Lizotto Parkes in tho character of ’Stasia, the slavey. But every member of tho company deserves congratulations for a fine performance in a most notable play—a performance and a play that will not soon bo forgotten.