JEROME K. JEROME.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 493, 28 April 1909, Page 3

JEROME K. JEROME.

This writer,-who made this world laugh with his book, "Three Men in a Boat," has never made such success in writing for tho stage. Still, what he has written is always worth attention." He has written a clean, amusing, and clever farce -entitled "Lady Bantoek," lately produced iin New." York, with Miss Fannie "AVard and Charles Cartwright.:.as headliners. : Says the ; "Theatre Magazine":—"Jerome K. : Jerome , ' as a dramatist has not always hit , the bull's-eye of public approval , ;'but'whatever he does contribute is always marked by a nice refinement, .a; gentle, satiric touch, a comprehensive sense of tho value of character, a sound technique and a graceful, humorous capacity for writing excellent dialogue. His new farce has all these qualities. 'It is not perhaps' a piece which will attract theatregoers to the point where the box office will be unduly taxed, but it deserves substantial support not only on its merits but because of the remarkably competent and smooth all around performance which 'Miss Ward aud her associates give of _it. One fault may bo found with it. It is just, a triflo too long, considering its, story. Three acts instead of four would easily -provide for its recital. Fanny, a music-hall,favourite,'marries Vernon Wetherell in. ignorance of the fact that he is Lord Bantock. Hβ takes her to his sncestral estates in Rutlandshirej 'where, to her dismay, she discovers that his butlor is 1 her uncle, *nd that; twenty-two , others of her relatives makouj) tho domestic force at Bantock Hall..' Her-uncle, Martin Bennett, hasv'ery positive ideas as to how the head of the house should conduct herself, and her life is. made amusingly '.'miser'ablo by their constant dictation. An old-time manager of hers has unwillingly complicated matters by informing her husband that ono of her uncles was a bishop and the other a judge; and out of this decoption there threatens a breach between the. newly-weds.-,, Fanny, .however, first asserts her independence of her, officious relatives, and. as it turns out that tho first .Lady Bantock was the daughter of a butcher, Lord Banjfock's troubles are removed."