THEATRE ROYAL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5485, 10 February 1896, Page 2

THEATRE ROYAL.

"THE FATAL CAED." Haddon Chambors and B. C. Steplionson's Fatal Card is a very fair specimen of a melodrama. Indeed, it has qualities which exalt it, " in some respects, above many of its kind. It contains some I powerful scenes j and a few of tho situations are marked by originality. Again, it depends for its success on acting more than do some plays, which' are mainly dependent on tho scene painter and the Btage mechanist. It is, however, rather loose in construction, and some of the characters have very little to do with the development of the plot, which is "absorbing" enough to keep the nerves of the audience in a continuous state of tension. The story is interesting enough. George Forrester, alias Marrable, whose character is a curious study in black and white, is saved by the hero, Gerald Austen, from being lynched" in Colorado, and presents his deliverer with a certain card as a memento of the occasion. A year or so afterwards the two men meet in London, and though they, become tolerably intimate they do not recognise one another, for the simple but insufficient reason that they have changed their clothes and shaved. Marrable occupies Ids time with planning a bond robbery and passionately adoring his innocent; daughter, with whom Gerald falls in love. The robbery is successfully carried out, the victim being Gerald's father, who is murdered by one of Marrable's accomplices. Young Austen, by tho aid of a discarded mistress of Marrable, surprises the gang in a cottage, but is promptly tied up, and Marrable winds up an infernal machine for the purposo of dynamiting him. Before it explodes, however, he discovers in his victim's pocket the card ho gave to his deliverer from Judge Lynch. The better side of his character turns uppermost; he releases Gerald, and resolves ,to perish, in his stead. Gerald throws the machine out of the window ; there is a most terrific bang, the lights are suddenly turned dowji, then turned up, and the audience, who might reasonably have expected to see everything and everybody on/the stage blown to smithereens, are relieved to find that though Marrable is dead, and there does not appear to tie much left of the" .cottage; the' hero and Heroine are ' hugging ono another. The tragedy of . ••' the -piece is relieved by some comedy and some broad farce, which has nothing to do with the action of the play. It ' arises mainly out of the wooing of Gerald Austen's sister Cecile, a character sustained with charming j> vjvacitar^gncL^ Harry Burges^j*a*Tashful but shrewd youth, impersonated by Mr Bland Holt, who made the part an intensely funny one. The fun was most uproarious during a decidedly risqut scene in the second act, wherein the clothes of the bashful man, who [hna gone for a bathe, are carried off. His lady-love arrives immediately afterwards, and he pops the question while shivering, behind a willow tree. Mr Bland Holt made quite as much as is necessary of the business of this scene,' which, on Saturday night, was very nearly being replaced by a real tragedy. As Mr Holt and Mr Kemp came on to begin the scene the act-drop and its roller suddenly fell to tho stage, passing within a few inches of the former's head. He was hurt on the ankle, and limped off the stage. The green curtain was lowered, the orchestra con tinued playing, and in about five minutes Mr Holt reappeared, to be greeted with tremendous applause. Greatly to- their credit, he and Mrs Holt went through the scene as if nothing unusual had happened. A portion of the comic element in the play was suppliedbyMissMora Anstead, who was capital in the role of Mis 3 Penelope Austen, an old maid with " year nings " and a taste for poetry. Mifß Frances Ross gave a natural, graceful and sympathetic • rendering of the part of Marrable's affectionate and pure-souled daughter, Margaret. ' Miss Elizabeth Watson, in the difficult part of Mercedes, Marrable's discarded mistress, was at times admirably forceful and natural. Mr W. E. Baker's acting as Gerald Austen was rather over-robusti-ous sometimes ; but, on the whole, he gained the sympathies of „the audience by a manly, feeling representation. Mr Albert # Norman gave an artistically finished por- * trayal of the character of Marrable, the strangely contrasting traits of the man's singular and complex nature being powerfully depicted. Mr J. Cosgrove did very well as the subaltern villain, Dixon, as did Mr C- Brown as Gerald Austen's teßty, selfish father. Mr M. Kemp, as a stage Irish servant, Mr Corlesse as the chief of the. lynchers, and the representatives of the minor characters were successful in 'their respective parts. The mounting of the piece was in Mr Bland Holt's usual style — most admirable. The scenery was beautiful and the final explosion was one of the best managed stage sensations seen here, the electric light, managed by Mr C. A. Seager, was introduced in certain of the scenes with excellent effect. The Fatal Card will be repeated to-night and to-morrow.