"BOUGHT & PAID FOR"

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2654, 28 December 1915, Page 3

"BOUGHT & PAID FOR"

3Y THE WILLIAMSON DRAMATIC

"Boujght and Paid For," a comedy-. Irama, by .Geov Broadhurst. .: Cast .Virginia Blaine Muriel. Starr DJctt Leonard' Stephens Fanny Blaine Dorothy.. Jjavics James Gilley i Hobart Oavaiiaugh Robert Stafford ... Charles A. llilhvard Josephine ,i................ 'Gortrude Boswell

Hitherto we have only'.kiiojvn .Gcorgo" Broadhurst as a writer of particularly rood farcical .comedies notable among them being'"The Wrong Mr. Wright" and "Why Smith .Left Home,", so that it was with iio 'prentico hand .that ho turned his'..'attention to plays' a little more serious in tone. in "Bought and Paid' For," produced by the Williamson management at the Grand Opera .House, ho gives' a very entertain,irig, if -.somewhat.'-thin-textured, drama, illuminated by many touches of comedy which at once, establishes tho writer's true metier, for the laughablo, incidents in "Bought and-Paid For" will be re-, membered longer and will cut deeper, into: public favour, than the V.moro dramatic moments, i. ■ In its .way -it' is a. problem play, and, like most problem, p'ays, tile. audience is. left guessing when tho curtain falls; still the ■ dialogue is well-pointed and well spoken, mid the theme is sufficiently gripping to lipid the attention until a happy-ever- . afterwards-'finish.*'. The cast is small arid quite adequate,. everyone being glad to welcomo back to New Zealand the Amer/can actress, . Miss t Muriel Starr, and the : English actor,' Mr. Charles: Millward.

" Robert" Stafford, ' a millionaire, lias : met and been- drawn to Virginia Blaine-, b telephone girl of superior manner and ; tastes, and' without wasting-any' time : lie ■ proposes' marriage,' though,. neither party can be said to have-conceived the j grand' passion. : 'marriage induces • love on both sides,' but in the case of the millionaire, that' love is shared by a '.devotion to' the bottle.. Sober Robert . Stafford is the best .and most generous of husbands ; drunk, he is/a .beast. In' ' his cups. he. lias a ...nasty habit of reminding ,his / wife that , she was iii, lowly: circumstances, when he married her,: and iu a not very edifying scene lie. tells her that she has been bought arid paid for, and in his. beastliness endeavours to ■ force her to drink with him', until she . clashes from . the room, and lie, -to get ~ at her, smashes a panel of . the door, she has slammed behind her: Tho scene next morning—tho lest dramatically in the play-finds the woman at bay, tho man repentant arid ashamed. Sbo wishes him to promise never to drink again, otherwise she must leave him, arguing thai . woman, has moral rights that: supersede legal ones: He,: accustomed 'to rule 111 : . all things, refuses to. promise,. and she leaves him.,' Then come's a touch of Tom i Robertson's "Caste." She is reduced to "work'for five dollars a week ai a milliner's; which.'Win' .witli : tho aid' of 'her-brother-in-law's meagre ■ earnings ' just-' helns to; keep; body and soul. together. an. amusing/. conceited little ohap, : named James Gilley,, whose fortunes have been wrecked by . his sister-in-law's principles, conceives the' ideii—one of y many—of bringing about: a reconciliation, and : rings up Stafford, leading him to believe that Virginia has , relented, and under that misapprehension a comiilete reconcilia- ' tion .is somewhat lamely effected. The . comedy elements left to Gilley and his wife, Fanny, wllo are plain, .matter-ot- , fact stragglers," and whose weigliing. up 'of the .'situation as it affects themselves forms ,to a :,hearty ■ laugh, for Jjmiriie 'cannot stand the fail from ."fioirieoi;and Juliet" cigars to , ■Vpunkeriiios,'!-.and cannot for the life of him pit principles against the pleasures of wealth unmeasured. So we have in "Bought- and Paid For" a 'dramatic shell that bursts near its mark, but the . chiirge'tbat sends 'it along is certainly, the, powder milled by Broadhurst's comic rouse." '- ■ ■.-.

Miss Starr returns' to lavour as .Virginia, of the ■ high 'principles/ and very naturally and' sincerely does she enact the role. In tho opening scene she spoke too quickly, and did not get the correct measure of the indifferent acoustios of : the theatre,, but later her low-' .'.pitched musical voice and the restraint ehe exercised , in. avoiding the ultratheatrical,. made her performance a distinctly interesting oue. Mr. CharlesMillward was admirable in every, respect as Robert Stafford.-- In a perfectly natural and restrained : manner he was human and impressive. His simulation of inebriation was ..convincing yet the,light touch, was always' there .when needed to. indicate tho sunny side of the' mag-, liato's character. James. Gilley was played' in a' crisp staccato' fashion by Mr. Hobart Cavanaugh, who allowed no point to miss fire. Miss Dorothy Davies was a trifje matronly'in. appearance for Fanny Blaine, but her alert' sense of comedy kept : her on-the best , of terms witli her audience. Mr. Leonard Stephens gave a capital little character sketeli as Oku, the "Jap." servant, and Miss Gertrude Boswell. was excellent as the French maid. . ' . ' An .orchestra, under/ the. direction- of

Mr. E. B. Gilchrist,- played better music than .-'Wellington audiences _ are accustomed to hear on such occasions. "Bought and Paid For" will bo played for the next four nights