"TRILBY"

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 57, 1 December 1919, Page 5

"TRILBY"

THE ALLAN AYTLKIE SEASON. jf "Trilby," a play in four acis, by ilia ... la to George- du .Uaurier. Cast of'char- $ ucti-K: n Svcugali '. Allan Wilk.'o jj Tnlbot Wynne dny Hastings Alexander M'Alister Prod I'ati-y S William Dagot Felix Kliintl " Gecko Gerald llarcourt E Due de la Uochcmurtcl ... lievnaril liceby t< Theodore la Farce- Kingston Hewitt » Antony Augustus Neville fi Col. Ka-w Vincont Scully * liev. Jiagot r.(l\va«l Landor K Mrs. Hagot Jlelen Kergus t Jldo. Vinard Lorna lorbi's g Angelc Vera St. .lolin !j Ilonorine iLona Duval « Trilby O'Farralt S Pretliswyde Hunter-Watts " It is ovor a (juarter of a century since Georgo du ilaiirier, a "Punch" artist and I occasional writer, made ;i liijj splash in « literary circles at Homo by producing jj that interesting and daringly original * romance of tho Latin quarter, "Trilby," | and it is' nearly as long ago .since the " story was given visual life bv its adap- | tion for tho stage. "Trilby" was first « produced in Xow York with Mr. Wilton t Lackcyo as Sveng-ali, and in London with » tho Into Sir Unrb?rt Beerholni 'J roc iw ' £ tho rascally hypnotist and Mrs. IT. B. <•■ ln-ing (Dorothea liaird) as Trilby. Somo R twenty ycare ago the play was intro- % duced to Xew Kcaknd by J. C. B Williamson, Ltd., with the lato Bouboii » Fax as Svciigrali and Miss Edith Crane { fls Trilby O'Farrall, and at a later date » the play was revived with .Air. Tyrone I Power and his wife (Miss Crane) as tho « protagonists. Since then one very sound \ ixirformanco hiis been given in Welling- ! " ton, when Mr. Gaston Jlcrvale made ' 5 Sveugali an artistically interesting pewou, I and Miss Nellie Stewart was a fascinating j Trilby. Tho play, on tho whole, with- ' stands tho ravages of time very well, ' i when one considers the somewhat freak- ! ' ish nature of the element which under- ' j lies the dramatic epivit of Hie play, viz., j s hypnotism, and if there wero those in i j tho audience- wlio wero amused rather i than thrilled at Svengali's eerie practices i j it may not altogether have been the fault I \\ of the players to convince but rather ow- j ing to Time's failure to prove to all men without any "probable possible shadow of doubt" that such things can be. Onehas to take a good bit for granted, too, ■in the pln.y itself. There are no initiatory rounds to tho romance between Trilby and Little Billee. -All three- "musketeers of the brush" offer devotion in a general way to the Franco-Irish model, but it is not until Taffy proffers love plus marriage that Trilby confesses her lovn for Billee, so it could not he expected that tho audioaco should cuess vhat y Billeo's intimate friends were unaware r of. And then when Svongali mesmerises L. Trilby and takes her away on her wed- A ding night, and subsequently (under his hypnotic influence) makes a great singer of her, one is asked to believe that a diva with a repertoire of "Ben Bolt" and "Au Claire de la. Lune" is capable of enslaving a world! Still the atmosphere of "Trilby," the suggestion of that frco' and easy Bohemianism of the Latin quarter of half-a-ccutury ago, has its charm, whilst the generous versatility in character, of which Du Miuirior was a master limner, has an abiding interest. [_ There is a fine security of touch in the drawing of such characters as Taffy, Sandy, Madame Vinard, and Zou Zou, which must have had their origin in living types, jind which help to give longei vity to tho play.

Tho AVilkie players were fairly successful in their presentation of the play. •Mr. AVilkio himself essayed the role of Svengali, and, with the aid of an effective make-up, got reasonably near the charactor of the oily Austrian Jew, who refers with greasy contempt to "tho pigdo? Englandei'3." There woro occasions when Sir. AVilkio forgot the accent of his assumed nationality (as in the scene with the Bagots), but he was finite convincing in the dramatic- scene in the third act, where ho suffers a heart attack, and sprawling backward across a Mile, dies a ghastly death in a green light. Miss Frediswyde Huntpr-AVntts was also .seen to much belter advantage in that act than in the studio scenes of tho two preceding acts. Mr. Guy Hastings niado a subdued Taffy, nild Mr. Fred. Patey a likeable Sandy, but Mr. Felix Bland, from a physical viewpoint, scarcely suggested Little Billie. Miss Lorna Forbes was conspicuously good as Madame Vinard, Mr. Edward T.indor was quietly comical as the liev. Thos. Hagot, Mi.=s Helen Fergus was Mrs. Bngot, and Mr. Gerald llarcourt was Gecko.

"Camillo" is announced to follow "Trilby."