“THE MAN IN DRESS CLOTHES.”

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17461, 12 February 1925, Page 5

“THE MAN IN DRESS CLOTHES.”

MR SEYMOUR HICKS IN A TOUCH OF DRAMA. CAST. Louis .... Reginald Collins Foxirot Mione Stewart Lucien ..... Seymour Hicks Henri do la Tour . . Vivian Edwards j'iere Lavarre - - Alfred Andrew Perdue .... Frank Jlatherley Germaine EJlaline Terriss Helen .... Elizabeth Seymour Hustav Reginald Hollins Odderitto Austen Milroy Marie ..... Mildred Tellcot Pimpernel I .... Leslie Donaghey MdlJe. Champignon . . Vera Wright Rosenthal Bert Frawley Andrew de Landcil . • -Norman Lee Severin .... Frank F-latherley Celeste Phyllis Fuller Jeanette ..... Emma Temple The glamour of high life among the leisured classes of Paris ru-ns through “ The Man in Dress Clothes,” which Mr Seymour Hicks has adapted from the French. but the play, though laughable enough, is not a comedy so much as a romance tinged with tragedy. It open s gaily enough in the bedroom of a young spendthrift, who is sleeping the hours of daylight away, but the dramatic interest is introduced with the intelligence that not only is he bankrupt, but that lie lives under the cloud of a matrimonial venture bv which lie and his wife are kept apart. It is the case of a man who secretly worships his wife, while putting a gay front on the lite of a wealthy bachelor. But the audience is never allowed to become depressed bv (lie young man’s misfortunes, and 1 iie play goes on to a. happy ending that is both probable and artistic. Mr Seymour llicks had a vole last night more than a. trifle different Horn anything ho had handled so far. There was the same delightful air of polished irresponsibility on the outside, but he had to betray an undercurrent of uneasiness and dissatisfaction with the loveless life be wag living, and in one or two scenes of self-revelation he drew on emotional resources hitherto unsuspected by those who have thought of him merely as a mirth-maker. It was an education to note the shades

of dramatic intensity introduced in tha i merest gesture or most casual soliloquy (he rest rained yet poignant grief oi one who bows to the seeming loss of the woman he loves. And in the rebirth of hope, and the realisation oi happiness at last, there was a radiance that was spontaneous and unforced. But when all this is said, the reader may still ask what connection the title has with the play. Well, it so happens that in the course of his financial ups and clowns the Comte d’Artois finds the bailiffs in his flat, and they leave him only the clothes he stands up in—and they happen to be his dress clothes. So lie has to stay indoors during the day. and sally out to his usual haunts at night, and this is where the gentle Comtesse rescues him. Miss Terriss. who. by the way, reappears in the. play in which she last acted before her long illness, may he said io bring a. womanly atmosphere into scenes that have a decidedly Parisian edge 1o them. .She was cast in . a beautiful role, and interpreted : L gracefully and with understanding. Apart-from the two principals, ihc 1 minor parts were well sustained. Miss ! Mione Stewart having a difficult role, with a long-sustained speech at one stage, through which she fared bravely. But. after all, the genius of the two principals was the outstanding dramatic: fact, and it was good to see them hand in glove with their parts in moments of great dramatic intensity, relieved with light touches of humour. The audience insisted on half a dozen curtains at the end of each act. the applause being unstinted and spontaneous. “The Man in Dress Clothes” will be presented for three more nights.