THE MARIOW COMPANY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1442, 17 May 1912, Page 8

THE MARIOW COMPANY.

"DRIVING A GIRL TO DESTRUCTION." In the four-act melodrama, "Driving a Girl to Destruction," performed for the first time at the Opera House kst evening, the members of the Marlon* Dramatic Company have plenty of scope for "extending themselves'," ns they say in racing parlance. Lucas List, a wealthy roue, conceives an unholy affection for Ruby Wrifht, a school teacher. Hcing a. very persistent villain, Lucas List stieka at nothing in the way of accomplishing his purpose. Ruby's sweetheart, Robert Ray, who is a mate in the merchant service, and a manly-looking fellow*, is one difficulty in liis way, while iier sisier Ruth, passionately attached to the villain, despite his moral .shortcoming'*, and therefore miH-iliing to be discarded ligMly, is another difficulty. With tho assistance of one Octavius'Scrcwc.ari'official of tho school commutes and a rascal to bootseconded by Madame do Moral, a scheming adventuress, Lucas List plots io separate Ruby from her sailor-lover, and marry him to Ruth. Ho succeeds.. Ruby, compromised by List, is denounced bv Ray, and discharged from her school, lifl'v, under the influence of liquor supplied by the villains, goes through a form of marriage with Ruth, discovers later that he has been duped, and spends tho rest of the evenings performance in searching for Ruby (who has gone to London), and tracking down the villain. Rubv, meanwhile, is being dogged by the persistent attentions of List, and in an extremity of poverty and lnuigcr soils herself in order to save the life of a cripple boy who was at the point of death through starvation. In List's flat she recalls her contract and defies him. A struggle follows, and Rubv takes up a knife to defend herself. Unseen by the two, Ruth, who has been hiding behind a screen, stabs him fatally, and disappears, the sole witness of the crime being the cripple, whose faculties of •speech are paralysed at the spectacle. The denouement." is reached when Ruby, having been arrested for the crime, her remorseful sister decides to confess. Madame do Meral bars the way, and a sensational struggle takes place between tho two women, who kill each other. Ruth lives long enough to scrawl her confession on a piece of cardboard, and all ends well, Rubv being reunited to her sailor. In' the character of Ruby. Miss Lomso Hampton was restrained'and Quito effective, while Miss Harrie Ireland gave a tragic representation of Ruth, the discarded mistress of Lucas List, which, in tho circumstances, was not overdrawn. Mr. Cecil Manucring had a strong port in the character of Robert Ray, a simp-.e, straightforward ship's officer, which he interpreted verv well indeed. Mr. Herbert Lindon, as Lucas List, looked and acted the rascal he was supposed to.be, while Mr. Vincent Scully imparted into his acting of the character of. Oetavius Scrcwe an air of clinging rascality, win™ was natural to the part. The melodrama will be repeated (his evening.