"THE CAT AND THE CHERUB."

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19174, 3 December 1927, Page 7

"THE CAT AND THE CHERUB."

CANTERBURY COLLEGE DRAMA SOCIETY. The Drama Society's successful production of C. B. Fernald's "thriller" of San Francisco's Chinatown has given riso to a demand for another night, as many people were unable to obtain seats for tho Monday to Wednesday season. Accordingly, one return performance is to be given to-night in the Little Theatre, Canterbury College, at 8 o'.clock. The play, a new departure for tho Society after their restrained classic playing of Masefield's "Good Friday," is a pure melodrama, a slice of the seamy side of life, with n squalid setting, a relentless plot resulting in two murders, situations that incline to the sensational, and characters which look at first sight to have stepped out of some railway bookstall fiction about a gambling den in tho sinister Oriental quarter of a dangerous city. And it is, admittedly, an essay in realism, and as such may seem unpalatable to those who like only to talk about tho grim details of low life, theorise about them, and walk by with nose elegantly pinched between shocked fingers. But there is an it far more than mere sensationalism. There is a plot which, though simple, is thrilling to a degree: thero is dialogue which never flags, but which is spirited and pregnant, often witty, often cynical, now philosophical, now stark and terrible. There is, too, some character drawing which is really excellent. Wing Shee, the learned doctor, is a masterpiece in himself, and Chim Fang, the villain, though less subtle, is strongly drawn. The others, Sunhuey, the lover. Hooking, the kindly selfish merchant, Hwah Kwee, tho human little maidservant, are all excellent portraits of Chinese types, inscrutable, yet swayed by the intensely human action which they weave together. . The booking, as before, is in the School of Forestry, Canterbury College. Seats are still available, and tho plans will be open all this afternoon.