"PETER'S MOTHER."

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 163, 3 April 1908, Page 8

"PETER'S MOTHER."

THE HERBERT FLEMMING ' COMPANY. "Peter's pother," the play by Mrs. Henry do la Pasture, produced by the Flemming Company at .' the Opera House last night, i» an,-exhibit that would carry weight in defence against the charge that play writing as an/ art is deteriorating.. It is positiv-' ' refreshing'to witness the development of i authoress's - excellently planned scheme ' incomparison with the artistic roughness which marred' the 'opening play presented by the company, and though .it is perfectly ■ reasonable ,to. suggest' that tastes ; 'differ,-as they always must', none ;can deny the skilled workmanship that'renders,-sp. acceptable a story for its theme the relationship of mother: arid " soil\ under circumstances distressingly, sane and logical;"' The lines are crisp and not infrequently epigrammatic, aiid ■the''language' used in , their composition a'd-'.mijf.-ofy the .finest, shade's of; meaning.', The play" may bo ranked- as - one of the problem order, linvolving, .as' it does,,.tho bearing of a naturally: selfish son .towards a widowed mothor, still in -tho 'prime of life, whose marriage '"to,! an austere, convention-loving, pleasure-scorning guardian has been tho reverse of happy. "It..i's in this way :—On the day of his death,' the son, Peter, haa, without his parents, left England to,participate in the South African war. He returns' three years later; exhibiting aigood, many of those traits that •were ;objectionable . 'in .-the' .narrow-minded fatherj'and rather, shocked to find his really youthful mother a blither being than ho had over'known her -to.'be. .He : thinlrs she ought , still -tg y.be sombre-gowned and sad, ' aiid.' is,,rather -. pained '.to, hear _ her sing—for - She has been cabined, -.cribbed,- and confined under herniate' tusbahd's' ifrigid regime ; life, since his death',' has jbroadoned out into a brighter, sunnier .aspectpfhi, loves , again! The boy thinks .this,is positively preposterous, ridiculous— holds ,v,the; opinipn that her . life, as a : ;woma'n ;bf feeling,','of/tehder emotions, js finished,- and, 'imagines, that her duty lies in playing thß:.role_.of the., retired, subdued mother j : living only in his interest, and in con,fining -herself t to-i a.,,mptherly solicitude for his slightest behest. ' His moth&'s guardian and her. accepted lover, a middle-aged Q.C., ,is'the first to brave.,the, boy's unfeeling arrogance, and scrape : the scales from his eyes, and. his ,view; ,is -[endorsed by Peter's clear-ininded fiancee,- whose championship "of the natural rights .of. her' sex is the convincing point in'Pe'ter's submission to the claims of tho, natural—from 1 his mother's point of.

■ ! - : Such a play could-not fail to be intensely interesting, and with: .the ,' capable interpretation given ;by Mr.; Flemming's talented company, it was iill,that.;Miss. Beatrice Day gave a delightful performance as.Lady Mary Crowys, a character, so diyerso in/tho conflicting .ernotions'.eyoked by her'dual position of mother ''and-,lover, "as to .'make -.the' fullest demands upori ;thej roost' experienced 'aotress. She was. iri the early scenes with her husband, where the keynote of the unsympathetic ■ alliarice i is ; struck; was deli-, ciously ; naive land sorious ; in mood in collision with, jier..,, son's didactic iseritiments, and was quite 1 charming'in her ; scenes with her cousinDay is refreshingly natural in her methods, and cheap theatricalisms do pot:,enter:. into tho scope of her histrionic understanding.', -She i.w'ears- somo beautiful costumes'.as.they : should be worn—without a .suspicion, of the:untoward in any, particular. , Mr. Aubrey Mallalieu makes Peter a: breezy, unconsciously' selfish young, snob, dictatorily. glib,-and aggressively; up-to-date in. every-, thing bjrt .consideration of''other.-people's feelings. 1 - Mr! A. S. Homewood was quietly earnest as John. Crewys, 'QiC., and showed a fine-dramatic; discretion in his big scene with Peteri'. where. he,'giyes,the:boy his''first lesson in , ; natural, deduction. Another strikingly, good performance was. that of' Mr. Winter Hall'as .SirVTimoihy 'Crewys, the husband of th^;^^'"^t^ft'cold; ascetic of immovably, wrong ideas.: Admirable, too, was!the Dr. Blundell of Mt. W. J. Montgomery;'a 'actor, whose performances of other years. are-.remembered with respect.:' . Miss Nellie' Mortyno . rather exap- ■ gerated the emphatic comedy of Lady Belstone, but both that actress and Miss Joan Blair as Miss Georgina Crewys, an oldfashioned ; / acid-drop, supplied excellent comedy, arid Miss Guilford Quin looked charming,'and acquitted herself well: as Peter's outspoken -fiancee. Mr. John Fordo was well placed as Canon Birch. ■ There'are three acts to " Peter's. Mother." Two aro enacted in a nice .' hall interior, 'and one—a charming : set—on a garden tor-; race,' with a fine vista of countryside in admirable perspective.- The.noxt change of bill will bo "Tho Red Lamp," to bo presented on Monday'evening. :