THEATRE RIOT IN NEW YORK.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1331, 8 January 1912, Page 3

THEATRE RIOT IN NEW YORK.

■ ,;. . < — > lEISH AUDIENCE. RESENTS .' "THE PLAYBOY.". vLady Gregory's Abbey Theatre players from Dublin, who have ?bcen-touring the larger cities of the United States, and have found critics who have proclaimed their acting, inspired,, and Hibernian audiences who have' thought their repertory libelled the Irish race, met with an astonishing reception at Maxine. Elliott's 39th Street Theatre, New York. The piece billed was J. }T. Svnge's comedy, "The Playboy of the Western World." The house, w.hich was crowded to the doors, contained three Supreme Court Judges and many of the most prominent Irishmen of New York, as well as 75 lusty Irish policemen in plain clothes, present- in, intelligent anticipation, because a stormy welcome had been extended to the company in other Eastern cities, v i ,

Before the first act ended, potatoes, eggs, and carrots,, followed by capsules filled with rod;, pepper and sulphuretted hydrogen, were-, thrown at actors from the- orchestra stalls, as'well as from the dress, circle and other parts ofthe house. ..Tho police ejected 56 persons, including: five indiguanlj ladies. Then, tho company repeated tha first act and gave the entire play, to an accompaniment of constant hissing. 'Meanwhile half a score of the noisiest of the disturbers were being fined five dollars each for unseemly bohavious at the Magistrates' Night Court. The cause of. this riotous conduct was not incompetent acting, but certain-lines in'the play which, to some minds, seemed an offensive, .portrayal of peasant life in the Old CountryN -

One man !in.'.evening 'dress rose and shouted, "You are. vilifying the Irish race-" A lady hissed t'rinr a box, "it's disgraceful." The policemen lost no time in getting into action; and the ciowd in the street outside richly enjoyed the performance.' The; theatre was in nproir, and- within five minutes 20 men were ejected by the. police. This process-of expulsion continued intermit('i;ntly till the final fall of ; tho curtain.