"DAMAGED GOODS."

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11949, 7 March 1917, Page 5

"DAMAGED GOODS."

The somewhat daring experiment of J. C. Williamson, Ltd., 'in presenting M. Eugene .oneux's wimUuruuiy lorccrai play, "Damaged Goods," to Australian and New Zealand audiences had its justification in Qu'kstcliurcn last night. A great many members of the audience winch assembled at tho 'theatre Royui obviously were present to learn lirsthand about a, play or which they had hoard many rumours, and the attitude at the conclusion of the periomvance showed plainly that the great moral lesson had sunk deeply into their minds ]Y> discuss the terrible effects of syphilis, to give details of its tearful ravages, and to hear the pitif'al and mock'-" ins tstory of a harlot of the Parisian streets on the stage of the Theatre Rovai is an experience about which Chi-irtch-irch a very few years ago would have been extremely chary. But one, of the euee'.s of the war ha.s been to bring the public into closer touch with the question of combating venereal diseases, and to-day these vital questions are discussed with a frankness. and common-sense that is wholly for good. The Government recently awakened to the necessity of educating the public to -the dangers in the midst of the community, and the good work was admirably amplified last night by the presentation of Brienx's masterly and telling discussion of'the subject. It would" be hard to conceive a more telling lesson than the unfolding of the awful toll exacted from humanity by the curse of syphilis that this play presents, and there must have been irany among those who saw " Damaged Goods" who realised much more vividly than they had done previously the pitiless results that inevitably follow in its train. As presented by the very clever company which handles the play, it becomes a great and powerful sermon, which even the jarring laughter of the unthinking in the most tense situations cannot shako in the conveyance of its awful message. Such a sermon from the stage cannot fail in its good work. M. Brieux handles his subject with a (straightforward and earnest clarity that robs it from the rising of the curtain until its fall, of any suggestion of uucloanness. The appeal of the doctor for a realisation of the effects of disease, for a sweeping away of the false modesty that cloaks the essential facts of existence, and for the teaching of the laws of nature without the humbug that our society has raised, is in itself a justification for the discussion openly of these things, and the author's pointed shafts too often find a billet in the j minds of his audience. Quite frankly the play shows the fearful effects that follow the marriage of a young man who was warned that he must not marry until he had been cured of syphilis, and the dreadful vengeance exacted by the scourge upon the child that he adores. It is a lesson that cannot fail in its appeal, and the concluding act, in which the doctor points out to the member of the Chamber of Deputies the evils that are cloaked over, and uses his patients a.s object lessons, is a terrible indictment of the false sentiment that has been raised in such an almost hopeless harrier around venereal diseases. The all too present excuse, "1 didn't know," is laid bare with all its fearful consequences, and the final scene, in which the doctor and his visitor hear the story of the prostitute, whom the doctor describes as " the product and cause " of the disease, is a fitting conclusion to a remarkable and dignified lesson.

The company •which presented the, play carried it through admirably, each member of the cast, fitting the character to perfection. Praise is duo to Mr Scahlan for his portrayal of • the arduous part of the doctor, to Mr Lewis Willoughby for his work as the victim of the disease, and to Miss D-oriso for her capable handling of the difficult part of the -woman of the streets. The management is to be*congratulated for presenting the piece without any extraneous aids, there being no orchestra and no curtain calls, "Damaged Goods" will be repeated to-night.