"MRS. DOT"

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 90, 9 January 1918, Page 3

"MRS. DOT"

MARIE TEMPEST IN NEW COMEDY

A very large audience assembled in tho Opera.House Inst evening to see SHbb Mario 'i'onipest and her clever company in tho presentation of a new piece, bomerset Maugham's clover com; uuy, "Mrs. Hot." tlie play is as ex : cenently staged and mounted as its predecessors, and though we have the celebrated Mr. I'epvs as an authority mat all iirst nights of plays are tedious, "and everytning is out," there was no hitch or delay of any kind in last night's performance. "Mrs. Dot" is an appotisiiig amalgam of wit, epigram, and humour ot the English variety. And it may be said in passing that it has taken a European cataclysm to force upon a reluctant world that tho English can bo humorous. Unlike the writer of ragtime revues and secondrate comic opera, Somerset Maugham does not rely upon draped (or undraped) audacities to make his points, or tho "double entente," or the bond sinister, or dexter either, to raise a hearty laugh. His humour is as clean and clear as the bed of a rivulet. ■ Tho plot, though as slender as the figure of the ultra-fashionable woman of tho moment, is distinctly visible, and continues to unfold itself as delicately as any flower, as the play proceeds. We have Gerald Halstane (Mr. Lan M'Laren), the impecunious aristocrat, on the point of bankruptcy. Interviews with angry "duns" are pending for him, notwithstanding the tact and vigilance of his familiar but priceless valet Charles (Mr. Leslie Victor): Then we have the wealthy widow of ,a brewer, Mrs. Worthly (Miss Temped), who is generous, extravagant, whimsical, and very witty. She of course, has long been in love with Gerald, who, to add to his many foolish actions, has committed the final indiscretion ot encaaino- himself to the daughter of a clever"middle-aged campaigner,. Lady Sellenger (Miss Ethel Morrison). Directly tho charming widow-finds that the deplorable state of her Geralds finances compel the immediate evacuation'of London, as far as he is concerned, she offers him the heart and hand he is too chivalrous to ask tor. Then he confesses, owing to "an absurdly large moon" an an afterburner ramble with-Nellie Sellenger (Miss Stewart), that he had proposed and been accepted. "Of course," snapped the justly-incensed widow, "every girl ot eighteen accepts every man who proposes to her." However "Hope winds his horn," as old Piers Plowman hath it and Gerald explains that Lady Sellenger, having no doubt heard rumours concerning his unstable financial equilibrium, has forbidden all thought of marriage for a year. The year being now up' Gerald hoped that when he unfolded how all his finances had fallen to-'.'cureless ruin" that the lady would refuse to bo a mother-in-law to him. Just then Lady Sellenger and her daughter arrive in Gerald's rooms, and Gerald breaks the news, with tho result he had anticipated—Lady. bellenger gives him his conge pleasantly amUfirmly, and asks him to tell JSellie very diplomatically, so that Bhe might not cry, "as we are going out to dinner this evening." Just as Gerald is at the point of telling Miss Sellenger the newsboys are heard crying the news of a disaster on the Indian frontier. 'H'ien Gerald hears that his cousin, Lord Halstane, is dead, and he is heir to the peerage and several thousands a year. Needless to say, in spite ot all the pretty widow can do, tho quixotic Gerald 'is determined to keep his word and marry Nellie. How Mrs. Worthlv manages to undo'this truo lover's knot is the work of the last two scenes. With the unconscious aid ot her attractive young nephew, Freddie Perkins (Mr. Roger Barry), who quickly falls in love with Nellie, and she with him—for youth -always calls to youth on the stage or off—and with the most reluctant assistance of a middle-aged cynic,' James Blenkiusop (Mr.-Gerald Brown), who, though , a' confirmed bachelor, has to pretend to love her, the clever widow has her own way, as most widows are popularly supposed to do at lasft * lUiss Tempest; "with Her easy motion and attractivo air that makes simplicity a grace," took all hearts by storm.' Her interpretation of the widow's part was really delightful; her enunciation'perfect. Even the Opera | House could not smother and engulf her words. Was not the old Elizabethan poet a prophet when he wrote: "Her gesture, motion, and her smile, her wit, her voice our hearts beguile"? As for Mr. Graham Browne, his versatility is really remarkable, with each I different make-up he has a set of different mannerisms, gestures, and oven a different voice' and accent, liij his excellent apostrophe to the "Gentle Sex," he cynically alludes to ,the women fighting for tho Hammersmith as' women scrambling for bargains at the sales. 'Mr. Gerald Halstane was "better suited in "Ponelope" in the more virile part of the cave-man. He is rather inclined to be stiff at times, as very tall men often are, but hjs facial expression is excellent, and his voice is most pleasing." Miss Ethel Morrison, as the redoubtable roondaine, Lady Sellenger, has a _ fine stage presence, and gave a fine interpretation of the part of the worldly mother, who, while admitting that she herself had married for love, was determined that her daughter should not make the same mistake! MLovo in a cottage nor love in a palace, ,but love in a house in Onslow Square is what-'I really require," she says, when giving Gerald his "knock-out" in-Act I, fis a rule the scenes between pretty flapper and amourous youth arc apt tOj bo rather sloppy, but Miss Nancye Stewart and Mr. Roger Barry acquitted thomselves excellently well in the pretty love scene in the "High Hall Garden" in Act 111. Mrs. George Lauri as the widow's chaperone, Miss Eliza MacGregor, gave a very good rendering of a minor part. Other small parts were adequately taken by Messrs. F. Allenby, Sal Cerdelf, and Victor Tatnall.