THE THEATRE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 793, 16 April 1910, Page 9

THE THEATRE.

The World's a theatre; the Earth a stagc.-Heywood. <Bv Silvius.) "The Night of the Party." This amusing farce-comedy, which had a voguo in London,'is to be produced at the Opera House on Tuesday evening by Mr. Geo. Willoughby's Comedy Company, which is being toured by the Clarke, Meynell,- and Gunn management. Playgoers will remember tho pleasant humour of Mr. Willoughby in "What- Happened to' Jones," "Why Smith Left Home," ''Mr.'Hopkinson," "The New Clown," and half a dozen other good comedies. If the new play contains as much matter for, merriment as any of those mentioned it will be welcome Tho company includes such well-known English players as Mr. David James, Miss Mab Paul, and others efficient in breezy comedy. Rehearsing "Chanteoler." The Paris correspondent of a London newspaper gires an amusing account of the troubles that, attended the rehearsals of Rostand's "Chantccler." He says:— " ' Chantecler' is , a pieco in four acts, but only three havo yet been rehearsed. In the first we see tho farm : yard, lorded over by the Cock (M. Guitry), who lives in harmony with his hens until the •Hen Pheasant (Mme. Simono) takes refuge there and ensnares tho heart of the Cock. Tho second act shows us the 'elopement of tho pair into the forest, and tho conspiracy of the night birds. . The third act is a sylvan reception in tho lionsc of tho Hen Pheasant. M. Rostand is a terriblo stickler for realism, and insists on each of his players copying as much as possible the action of the creature he or she represents. The little hens in tho first act manage pretty well, but M ; Guitry offers much resistance. To begin with, ho has to talk without gesticulating, as his arms are hidden under his wings, and M. Rostand tried hard to fix a beak over his mouth and chin, tho lower mandible ,to be worked with a string..'This, however, was too' much, and the. beak-will be a prolonga- ; tion of his nose. Tho question of the Cock's legs was a crucial one. M. Guitry's limbs in nowise resemble those of a bird, and as he cannot possibly thin down, we shall seo a' huge fowl about seven feet high with colossal legs covered with a scaly pair of tights and feathers. "But his tribulations do not end with the casing of his legs. . Ho has to fight with an American' Cock, M. Aurelhjs Sidney, who has been seized by llcs-t-and from the Ambigu to do battle with Guitry.' . And a cock fight is not -as easy on the stage as a boxing match. Cocks —at least, M. Rostand's cocks — must us'o their spurs and leap into the air, and M. Guitry docs not appear much to relish this part of his role. I But if he.is in difficulties, what of M. Jean Coquelin, the dog, who is .always following the cock? In nature, a dog is generally bigger than a cock, hut Coquelin is-not so tall .as Guitry. Yet, when he tried going on all fours for ten .minutes and repeating his words, ho gave it up and categorically ■ declared that it was too. much for him to play in this position. A pair of doggy hind leg 3: was .then made for him out of cardboard, with his own logs to act as forelegs, but then, poor Jean bore no resemblance to a dog, nor to any known animal, looking like, a!fantastic hybrid with a bull's body, and a dog's.head., .His frt-n is not yet decided, but lie will probably vend in.using his arms like a

,' begging dog, , and vill follow Guitry, iiko-a poo3le,;on his.hind legs. -. '.;/• " ' "Thq,,cbmedian Galipaux is the mock.ing blackbird. So was ratlier annoyed at tho rehearsal, when he. believed himself to be a very good bird, to bo asked, with exquisite politeness,, >by M. Rostand, whether he had ever seen a b-ackbjrd, and if he had watched how blackbirds walked. 'They don't walk, M. Galipaux. They jump; with both feet together. You must'., practise that, •■M. Galipaux! You must practise!' and now Galipaux takes, nightly exercise, hopping along the, boulevards. Tho pigeon sits all tho time on a roof, so only has to have the upper half of a pigeon costume. When he-appears, hesays, 'Good morning, hens!, , and they" answer,' 'Good day,' postman I' Mme. Simono'is pleased enough with her part of the pheasant, but her kissing scene with; the cook will ho merely a rubbing of. beaks, of which ' her newly-married 'husband need not bo jealous. Tho dialogue,' is said to' bo sparkling with wit: there is hardly a line without a pun or ant epigram." "Or, Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." It seems pretty plain from tho criticisms in tho London press that Sir. Comyns Carry in tis dramatisation of Stevenson's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," has missed the point.of it as coniplete-ly-raid vulgarised it as remorselessly— as any of the preceding adapters. It is pretty plain, also, that Mr: H. B. Irving, in his dual embodiment, has paid more attention to the clumsier melodramatic possibilities than ■ the finer spiritual significance of the story. One of the most conscientious and observant —though, not the most brilliant —of the London reviewers writes:—"This latest 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hydo' is a better play than that, which Richard Mansfield. showed us about twenty years ago at tho Lyceum—it is more symmetrical, less spasmodic, its interest is more deftly woven.' But it is far from being as good a play as the newer spirit of tho ago would have appreciated—there is no thread of philosophy and psychology to bind; together its frightful incidents and hideous grotesqueness. It is well, written, so far as language goes; it is skilfully constructed in its additional 'feminine interest. . But Jekyll is made an adulterer, and himself is half-oomplacont towards tho crimo of murder which afterwards he, as .Hyde, is to commit. Q'ho Stevenson spirit and idea are blurred. That which remains to us is a fascinating drama of dread, a nightmare. .... Astonishing as is Mr. living's performance as a physical effort, nimble as are tho lnetamor.phoses, frightful and highly ; imsginatiyo as is his presentment of the bestiality and brutishness ofNHyde, it cannot be said that work such as this marks any great intellectual achievement, or is worthy of the actor. It is moro an exercise in grotesque abnormality than a delineation of any phase of unnatural debasement. It is moro an illustration of a wehr-wolf than the portrayal of the, mental processes■ of extreme decadence. In short, it is a superficial and external study merely. Tnis, of course, is moro tho fault of the author than the actor—but one shrewdly suspects than an actor-mninaser , gets the kind of character he asks for. Oh its own plane it is 'an astonishing, a tremendous, piece of work—but it is not the piano which is going to make lasting fame for Mr. Irving." A Man's World. The latest play, by Rachel Crothers, "A Man's World," which was produced in New York in February,, with emphatic success, is (says tho. "New York Post") a real drama, written from he-' pinning to end with clear purpose and de-sign, with the interest arising legitimately out of tho conflict of circiim- .| stance and character, and centring finally in a strong and moving climax, followed by a logical and significant catastrophe. As the title implies, tho subject is tho relation of the sexes, a subiect upon which it us, of oouxso,

practically impossible to say much," if anything, that is new. But Miss Crothors, with much (ingenuity, has devised a plot which, N if it depends a little too much u'poh the convenient miracles of coincidence, enables her to illustrate her main thesis with striking dramatic cflccfc, and to give to argument the force of practical exposition. I'hat she has proved-her case cannot ho asserted, for she has left om\ or two mightily potent features of the problem out of consideration altogether; but, so far as the* moral and. ethical aspects of__the question arc concerned, she has ucuj reason and'right on her side, and.she has made an ablo contribution to 'current controversy. The principal male character -in the play says, with refer-, enco to the. existing double standard of morality in sexual matters: "This is a man's world. Man sets the standard for woman. Ho knows she's ' better than lio is, and lio demands that she lx>—and, if she isn't,-she's got to suffer for it. That's the whole business in a nutshell." This is the condition which, the heroine asserts, and against which she protests. She holds that man sets the standard because- women allow him to do so; because good women habitually condone his offences. If women, she argues, rigorously exacted from their suitors the purity expected in themselves, the double standard would no longer be generally accopted. " 'Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished." But Miss Crothers ignores the- handicap of Nature. Nevertheless it is an inspiring idea, and she enforces it in a very striking play. "Tho Brass Bottle." , A most successful piece of the genuine farcical order, the Australian rightß of which have just been -secured by J. C. Williamson, is "The Brass Bottle." It has proved, a great success in London, and the notices of- the press there havebeen most gratifying.. Mr. J. A. E. Malona is at present, concentrating his energies on securing a strong interpreting company to bring tho piece out to Australia within the next six months, and it should certainly meet with a big success out here with audiences who go to the thoatre to have the cobwebs driven from'their brains by a good, hearty laugh. There is nothing serious in the piece—it is farce pure and simple, with' a strong flavour of tho fantastic, reproducing cleverly nil the immensely humorous features of Anstey's story of the young architect's becoming possessed, through an act of unwitting generosity, of an Arabian genii, who, to show his gratitude, heaps his benefactor with most .embarrassing favours from changing his modest London chambers into a gorgeous Eastern palace to transforming his prospective father-in-law into a donkey. All through the four acts the fun waxes fast and furious, and the effects, such as the .filling of the Strand with- a gorgeous Eastern caravan, or ithe efforts of an English dinner party to_ dine in the .Oriental 'fashion/ all provide most ludicrous moments. London Plays and Players. A very busy, if not a particularly prosperous, time is that which we are —more, or less—enjoying at tho theatres just now (says the "Dramatic News" of February 26).'. As to, the non-pros-perity, that is, I think, to he accounted for quite in the usual way, and without reference .to Budget or Veto or General Election, or any other abnormal influence for -evil. The productions since Christmas, and especially for the last, six weeks, have beeiv a poor'lot, and that is the long and short of the matter. Leaving put of the question hopeless undertakings like the Strand '"Richelieu," one cannot but regard as inevitable disasters such, ventures as that of "Tho Strong People," which .has .driven-Mr. Lewis Waller, from the Lyiic'-'to tho Hippodromc-^for' 3 the most 'dramatic monologue, by the way, that I ever heard—or of "Captain .Kidd," from whoso noisy feebleness; Mr. ffeyr. niour Hicks has fled to tho peaceful rest of -an Italian holiday. "The O'Flynn," greatly improved by condensation, of its olla podrida, may, I suppose, servo Sir Herbert Tree's turn fairly weir at His Majesty's; but the one -outstanding hit of the moment — popular perhaps rather than artistic— is. that which Mr. H. B.' Irving has scored at the Queen's with the gruesome melodrama of " Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde."