“THE BAT.”

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16875, 28 October 1922, Page 6

“THE BAT.”

A AVIBBIAMSON ATTRACTION. The box plans for the first six nights} of “ The Bat ” will be opened al The Bristol Piano Company on W ednesday morning next. The following is the story of “ The} Bat,” the clever play of a high-classy mystery order to be seen here, under the J. C. Williamson direction on Friday next. There are three acts, all of which are played in a house on Long Island, which lias been rented by a handsome and astute spinster of sixty, Miss van Gorder, from the nephew of! j Courtney Fleming, a bank director, j without the owner’s knowledge. That latter point is important, a a are the facts that the bank hais been robbed off 2000 dollars, that the cashier is suspected of the crime, and that the money is believed to be hidden somewhere. The sensational incidents of the first and second acte occur in the living: room of the palatial dwelling, and tli3 last act in the garret. The place ia isolated and lonely. The mystery is increased by the fact that many oil the scenes are enacted either in perfect! darkness or by the feeble glow of candles, for a thunderstorm is raging There ie not a moment without its problems. The manifestations begin with the rising of the curtain. Spectril hands protrude through the curtains, weird knockings are heard on the walls, and occult warnings and dismal groans are frequent. Threats are made on papers, which, wrapped round stones, are hurled through plate-glass windows, and the planehctte. being resorted to, tells of the brooding influence of the “ Bat.” Ho is a ruthless criminal, who works with sphinxlike silence and secrecy, and with pitiless malignity. His identity in unknown. His deeds are audacious and awful. “He may be a merchant, a lawyer, or a doctor,” declared the police, and significance is given to this statement by the circumstance that representatives of each class appear in the personnel. Everyone is under suspicion, from the Japanese butler and the superstitious maid, who has been with Miss van Gorder for twenty years, to the fascinating Miss Dai*» Ogden, the resourceful doctor, and thj gardener Brooks, to say nothing of an unknown man, who falLs into the plotj through an open door in the last stages! of exhaustion. The interest is kept at boiling point by the investigations andj cross-examinations of a very uncommon detective, the eager searches of Missi Ogden and her fugitive lover, the furtive actions of Dr Wells and the but-} ler, the strange doings of Lizzie and the courageous and well-directed work of Miss van Gorder, who has no protection in the house save that of the butler. Much is left to the imagination, but all the clues and circumstantial evidence are completely upset when the climax is reached.