HIS MAJESTY’S.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1322, 26 August 1915, Page 29

HIS MAJESTY’S.

“THE MAN WHO STAYED AT HOME.” The story contained in “The Man Who Stayed at Home” is one of German espionage in England, detected and baffled by a British officer in secret service, Christopher Brent. Brent disguises his alertness and activity under the manners of a languid idler, who, in the first act, accepts, without wincing, a white feather, handed to him by a furiously scornful girl. The construction of the play is described as ingenious, its dialogue crisp and full of points, and its action swift and intelligent. The cast includes Messrs. Frank Harvey, Leslie Victor, Arthur Cornell, Kenneth Brampton, Charles Morse and Arthur Milroy, Misses Violet Paget, Emma Temple, Florence Gleeson, Temple Pigott, Dorothy Cumming, and M. Browne.

Mr. Frank Harvey has achieved an electrical triumph as Christopher Brent, the man who stayed at home. At one minute he depicts a brainless fop, with hardly sufficient energy to get out of his own way, toying for effect with monocle, and embellishing his speech with “dontcherknows” and “eh, whats” of the orthodox Bond Street style, but the next minute he is the quick witted, shrewd, calculating secret service agent. It is said he shows admirable restraint when he is presented with the white feather, and a true sense of earnestness when his fiancee presses him to tell why he has not enlisted. The staging is a special feature of the production. The box plans will be opened at Wildman and Arey’s on Monday next.