LEON GORDON OPENS SATURDAY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18548, 23 August 1928, Page 7

LEON GORDON OPENS SATURDAY.

Mary Dugan, member of a beauty chorus, will stand her trial at the Theatre Royal on Saturday next, on a charge of murdering Edgar Rice, whose mistress she was. Rice was found dead in Mary’s flat, stabbed in the back. The knife handle bore her fingerprints, and on herself and clothing were bloodstains. The chief witness for the prosecution will be the murdered man’s wife. The facts are so simple ‘as to be almost conclusive of Mary's guilt. One says “ almost,” because it is understood that Jimmy, a brother of the accused, himself a young lawyer, with a flash of inspiration, has seen a way out of the impasse. Meanwhile District Attorney Galwey, noted for his vitriolic crossexaminations, is generally conceded to have an easy task. In cases Where the evidence was much less clear than the present, the accused was taken to the electric chair. Edward West, engaged for the defence, is not considered shrewd enough to counter the bludgeoning, vet very clever methods of the prosecuting attorney. For the purposes of this trial the Theatre Royal will be made like a Supreme Court. The audience will be put in place of a jury. Lawyers, witnesses, judge and accused, will address themselves directly to the audience, for it is they who must be convinced. There will be no orchestra, nor will there be rise or fall of curtain during the whole trial. For the first time Ilia method of American criminal trial will be presented in its entirety to people not American. How far such a method would be tolerated in New Zealand will be known when the trial itself is witnessed. With an eye on the jury the appeal of the principals is all to the dramatic. It would be impossible to imagine the office of the prosecuting attorney in more capable hands than Mr Leon Gordon, who made himself known to Dominion audiences by his part in “ W T hite Cargo.” The accused’s part will be taken by Miss May Collins, who is on her first visit to New Zealand. Prominent people in the cast arc Elsie Willing, Campbell Copelin, Frank Bradley, John Fernside, Edwin Lester, Evadne Royle, Lev-land Hodgson, Nancy Askins, Daphne Bairn, J.

B. Atholwood and Charles Wheeler. Box plans are rapidly filling at The Bristol.