PINERO’S LATEST.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVI, Issue 956, 2 July 1908, Page 18

PINERO’S LATEST.

Mr A. W. Pinero’s latest play “The Thunderbolt,” has quite failed to please some of the critics. The “ L.V. Gazette ” says of the characters that “ they are only animated puppets, and never men and women. He puts clever dialogue into their mouths, he groups them effectively, but he never makes them live. Even had he endowed his figures with life, I fear that they would not have been worthy of the evident labour which has been expended in their moulding. The play is intended to be essentially one of character studies rather than of action, and the studies are in some instances undeniably clever, the figures are drawn distinctively, but they are drawn from uninteresting models; and when the

last curtain has fallen a query as to whether the story is worth the time and skill bestowed upon its narration inevitably intrudes itself. My own answer to the question is, no. The play is not faulty from lack of material but from abundance of poor material, and because otherwise good situations are spoiled by being too long persisted in. The characters are drawn with laboured precision, when they might have been delicately sketched, and heaviness is the result. There are some points in the production deserving of favourable comment. The dialogue is literary and natural at the same time, a consideration only attainable by a master hand. The stage requirements in the matter of curtain and grouping are unerringly fulfilled, but the result is only staginess and affection; and although there are many critical playgoers to whom the play will appeal because of this effort, and in spite of its failure, I regretfully record the keen sense of disappointment I experienced, not only on account of the inherent weakness and artificiality of the play, but from my knowledge that Mr A. W. Pinero has not in this instance given us of his best.”