DRAMATIC STORY FORMS BASIS OF NEW GORDON PLAY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18546, 21 August 1928, Page 7

DRAMATIC STORY FORMS BASIS OF NEW GORDON PLAY.

Enough has already been said about "The Trial of Mary Dugan” for the public to gain some idea what it is all about. Commencing on Saturday next the Theatre Royal will cease to be a theatre in the generally accepted meaning of the word, and will become a Supreme Court for the greatest melodramatic trial of the day. When Mr Bayard Yeiller wrote “ Within the Law,” he indicted American third degree methods. Now he goes even further, and holds up to the world all the terrors of American criminal trial. He does so in this case by causing Mary Dugan, a beautiful chorus girl, to be charged with the murder of Edgar Rice, who was found in her apartments stabbed in the back. Mary was his mistress. On herself and her clothing were found bloodstains, and her finger-prints were on the handle of the knife. The author has so far taken the audience into his confidence that he makes them the jury. To give full effect to the break-away from dramatic tradition there is no curtain from the beginning to the end of the trial. It is not a theatre the audience enter, but a Supreme Court room. Nor is there any orchestra to withdraw the attention from the course of the trial. Australian critics describe “The Trial of Mary Dugan ” as having

i thrill, suspense, surprise, mystery, imagination, humour, and above and beyond all, originality. “Mr Leon Gordon,” wrote one critic, “as the prosecuting district attorney, flashing question, probing answer, alert and ruthless, succeeds beyond praise.” The methods of the N'ew York police appear to havp been studied carefully, and the technical expressions are cleverly introduced. The addresses of counsel, the damning indictment by the district attorney, with its crescendo of passion, and the eloquent pleading of Jimmy Dugan for the defence, are. in their way, fine pieces of stage writing. During a brief adjournment of the court, “ special editions ” of an illustrated “ newspaper ” are distributed among the audience, thus heightening the realism of the performance. It is not unworthy of notice that when the play was running in Australia several of the newspapers there spoke with enthusiasm of the dresses worn by the actresses in the piece. The box plans open to-morrow at The Bristol.