"HER FORBIDDEN MARRIAGE."

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1751, 16 May 1913, Page 6

"HER FORBIDDEN MARRIAGE."

$ THE MARLOW DI!AMATIC COMPANY. "Her Forbidden Marriage," a melodrama in four nets, by F. Melville. Cast:— George Maddison ... Mr. Herbert J. Bcntloy Charles Dcvcrcux Mr. Hilliard Vox Geoffrey JU'oughton ... Mr. Arthur Shirley llev. Mr. Dean .\ Mr. Arthur Cross Timothy Tuttntt Mr. John I!. Howard Sir George Lancaster ...... Mr. 11. G. Carr Lucy Miss Gwendoline Dories Patty Lovejoy Miss Nellie Holro.vd Lady Lucrctia. Lancaster...Miss Oriel Hotson Little Lucy Littlo Gladys Burton The Mother Superior Miss Biddic Hawthorn In changing the bill from "Tho Queen of the Kcdskins" to "Her Forbidden Marriage," fno Marlon' Dramatic Company lapsed from the improbable into the impossible, for Frederick Melville's alleged play can only be classed as a burlesque on melodrama. ,-\s such, it was received last evening by tho audience, who laughed just as often and as heartily as if the rare provided was shrieking farce, wliich is ever so remote from tho author's foil intention. No opportunity is given tho hero, his true love, or the erring father, lo display tho slightest intelligence, and, judging by the case with which tho villain and his paramour achieve their wicked designs up to a point, ft must be ' conceded as a sliccy bit of had luck that they are ever bowled out. Nt all. The charges hurled against the hero ore (1) that ho makes love to his step-mother; (2) that ho defalcates to tho tune of £>000; (3) that lie only wishes to marry tho girl for her money; and (-0 that'he attempts to murder his father, to all of which charges lie is obviously innocent even to the most primitive of comprehensions. Tho good young man (George Maddison) is a young and brilliant inventor in tho employ of Sir Gcorgo Lancaster, who bemoans the wrong he lias done to a woman and her child in the misty past. Sir Gcorgo has a ward (Lucy) who loves Maddison and loathes Charles Devereux, the lover of Sir George's second wife. Dcvcrcux designs lo marry Lucy, but Maddison, on the advice of a cheery chauffeur, rushes her off to a church and marries Iter—just in time. Ero tho marriage servico is completed Devcreux rushes in to accuse Maddison of having purloined moneys belonging to Lancaster's firm, and the next day. the hero is found coolinc his heels in a convict cell. Years pass (the audience is allowed to guess how many) until Maddison escapes from gaol, in the nick of time to prevent his Lucy being forced into an odious marriage wit ii the persistent. Dcvcrcux. Then somehow or oilier Lucy escapes into thcstreel and finally becomes a nun, whilst Maddison "becomes possessed of vast weal Hi, and exerts its forco to break up his old employer (who in the previous act lie had saved from the assassin's knife), ('■rushed and broken, tho old man, by some means not made very clear, finds thai: Maddison is his long-lost son, and that the Mother Superior of the convent: which shelters Lucy, is his mother, and his dawning comprehension establishes the fact that Doveveux and Lady Lancaster (who is deprived of tho honour of that, name liv the Mother Superior's discovery of a document proving her to be the baronet's legal wife) were the folk wiio had attempted to shorten his stay on earth. Not: even the most brilliant players who adorn the siage could make such a play nossible to intelligent people, and the ?4:U'b« Company were eortiinlv not equal lo the task. Mr. Herbert Bcntloy tried vei.v hard to appear as a normal human being in the character of George Maddison, and bill for the author, would have succeeded. ' Mr. Hilliard Vox shrieked himself voiceless as the arch villain Dpvercn:;, and Miss Gwendoline Dories made an ultra-melodramatic. Lucy. Mr. IT. Carr was quite ill-suited as Sir George Lancaster and Miss Hotson as Lady Lancaster gave no evidence of her fitness to occupy such a position. As is conventional iii melodrama the funny man, Timothy Tuttutl, was given the freedom of the Wi 11, Hild as played by Mr. Howard, made the mo-t of it. As a -erious contribution to melodrama of consideration "Her Forbidden Marriage" cannot lie siven a ulaee. ,\- a Iravc-ly it was excellent entertainllieilt.

For llrnitchial fonslis and folds Woods'. Great Peppermint Cure, Is, lid,*