"AN ENGLISHMAN'S HOME."

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 486, 20 April 1909, Page 7

"AN ENGLISHMAN'S HOME."

PRODUCED IN SYDNEY. "Aft Englishman's Home," the wake-up-. England play by Major Guy Du . Maurier, was produced for the first time in Australia at Sydney on Saturday, Aprillo, - and from the notices to hand created a> profound im-, pression, not so, much' on account- of : its Merits as a drama, as its' power to shake ;the public into a new groove of': thought with respect- to England's alleged uripreparedness te resist an invasion. The' "Sydney Motning Herald"- summarises the play. Ik : the, ihtro-' duction to its. criticism as follows.' "Those who anticipate, the ' vainglorious declamatory assertion of everyday melodrama will be disappointed. The play is, on'the.cofr. trary, a stinging satire upon Great Britain's unpreparedness against invasion. The • particular 'home' Which gives the piece, its title is exhibited with a photographic accuracy that realises the commonplaces of suburban family life in a remarkable degree. Ih fact, the dramatic scheme is such that the casual observer is apt to overlook, in a piece that has many faults! aiid even some inconsistencies, a really fine dramatic achievement on the part of tho author—the invention in these late days of absolute novelty of inci- ■ dent combined with economy of stage equipment. He shows us for tho first time England invaded in the 2000 th century!' "This idea, which at' the first! blush'-'suggests the. costliest Drury Lane drama ever- staged, l with' 'the glistening god of war' inspiring the movement of masses towards consummate spectacular effects, is. somehow sufficiently conveyed by a: handful of actors in the sittirig-robm .interidri of a seaside villa! . It; shofiia- be . added. that, Major . Guy Du Maurier's play, is not in. any "sense great,. 'though'h.ny writer who, can work out such. au ; original schcmo with success must possess imagination of no ordinary'kind. It,,lacks ; or heroinp, 'fiirnislies.,no,-,'g'rcati acting parts, and is rather alarmingly ab-; breviated. But it is very much to the point just now, and that man is little to be en--vied whose patriotism would not gain force by witnessing it."