THE CHALK LINE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1426, 29 April 1912, Page 9

THE CHALK LINE.

A M'W I'I.AY. A not lie]' attempt In (fin: h ji;it i-inf ism trom tin l stage is made in a new plav fallt'll "The Chalk liine." which i* being produced ill (jiimi't: Theatre, mill pi'Ulll i*.('S 1,1 I'.Hil; (, m . „| |||~ J)]'j iK-j pn I theatrical events (if (hp year (writes a bunion correspondent Id I hi' Sydney I ('li'gi'iipli"). Tlio text is (lie joint work (if Air. I'ubian Mare ami Mr. Al. Al'Owan, biilli skilful literary men, lint novices in Hie art of dramatic writing. The former rewiilly iTsignpil Ihe vililtirsliip of the "Morning Po.-I,"and will be remembered in flint capacity by the delegates who atHie last two Imperial Conference-. " l'lio Chalk .liinc" (a figurative designatiim lor the straight cnin'-e. of sober citizenship and patriotic duty in time of (lander) is frankly melodramatic in some of its deviees, Imt al almost every point it touches questions of the day, such as the possibility of war with (ierinnny, the blindness of the pacifists, the hope or Socialist leader.- that conlliels can lie prevented in future by an international combination based on mutiny, and the danger of industrial unrest from the point ol view of defence and notional uell-lieing. One of the chief characters is a countess (reminiscent of the Countess Zit-Ua), who combines'assistance in the promotion ot a general strike with spying for a foreign enemy who is waiting a favourable opportunity to attack this country. A Scottish scientist—a pacifist in his own fashion —has invented a poisonous pis, which is to "make war impossible" by creating, at a given place, an atmosphere capable of destroying a whole army. The principal part of tlie story is concerned- with an attempt by the eountess to (jet possession of the secret of the gas, ami her defeat at the hands of a suspicious firitish army officer. One of the novelties of the play is the absence of the customary "love interest." The authors forgot it, or had no time for it when working out the excitements of their story.