"The Banshee."

Feilding Star, Volume xv, Issue 335, 9 June 1894, Page 2

"The Banshee."

MR KNIGT'S NEW PLAY.

As some interest is being taken in the forthcoming-production of Mr S. Knight's new Irish play, a few particulars concerning it may prove interesting to our readers. Apart from any original, merits the drama may possess, it has an additional attraction, from the fact of being the work of a local resident. The play was placed in the bands of Mr L. Dunbar a few weeks ago, and that well* known actor was so favorably impressed with its merits that he tmderlo6k 'the revision of the work, the result oT which is its early production in Feilding. The superstition connected wi£h "The Banshee" is fatniliar to all sons of the Emerald Isle, and inde^ tb'many otlier nationalities, but, strange though it may appear, the subject has never yet 1 been worked into dramatic form ; there* fore, Mr Knight has the advantage of ' being distinctly original in his first dramatic effort. The following brief resume of the play will be interesting to our readers: It is a simple story of a 1 lowly born Irish peasant girl named ; Kathleen (Miss Helen Fergus) Yyrho has so captivated the wealthy squire Egan 1 (Mr L. Dunbar) that he stoops from his ■ lofty social position, and marriesher. ;-■ A | haughty natured man is the Squire whose love, or fancied love, soon fadesfor ' his humble bride, and, ■. being frequently reminded of the old curse handed down 1 from his . ancestors— that danger > would 1 surely overtake those who dared to 1 marry beneath their station,— he bitterly ' repents the rash step he has taken and ! seeks to console himself with .another ■ whose rank is more on an equal with his ' own. He journeys to Dublin where he 1 meets one Kate Desmond (Miss A^Keen) 1 whose charms so attract bim that he for ' the time forgets Kathleen and asks | Kate to become his wife. She is in torn * captivated by the Squire's manner. | Squire Egan returns to his* estate in 1 Ballimanna after six months' absencef ' undetermined how to act. Loyalty and ' right beckon -him to Kathleen— rank * and station to Kate Desmond ; and ai * this moment he is prompted :by his f servant Dumpy Mullins (Mr T. ; N. Ford)' " —a villianous cast-off' Suitor of Kath- | leen's— the result being that they decide 1 between them to cause Kathleen's de- * struction. Kathleen's solitary walks [ lead her of late to the beautifuly lake j where the Squire first sought heriiand, 1 and it is here that she is found by Egan 3 and Dumpy Mullins. Egan here fairly * accuses Kathleen of infidelity to him, 1 and directs Dumpy to cast her into the £ lake,, which murderous act being apparently completed, he iinagines lie is * once more free to wed. On his^return r to Kate Desmond,' imagining iiis^vife J dead, the Squire receives from her her 1 consent to marriage; but duririg his ' temporary absence she is visited by a » spectre, who is none other than' forth- * leen assumingthe disguise of a "Ban- ? shee," and who solemnly warns her not 1 to marry Egani. Kate Desmond, after * this warning,' shuns Egan with aversion. 3 Eighteen years elapse between this part 9 of the story, and we find Kate Desmond 1 (now Mrs Melville) a widow with a I daughter of seventeen, called Alice (Miss c M. Tuohy), and the infant son of Squire » Egan's— supposed to be dead— who is 3 known as Maurice (Mr J. Lucre). \ Maurice has been brought up { by two ' faithful servants, named respectively 1 Paddy Moylan (Mr F. Keen) and Molly 7 O'Reilly (Miss A. Norris), in ignorance Of his birthright and parentage, and the 3 heir to the Ballimanna estates often * meets in the woods what he imagined to I be a spirit, but who eventually discloses c herself as his mother— Kathleen. A * scene, of deep emotion herefollows, in ] which she tells her son the reason for adopting this strange disguise— simply ' to be revenged on her callous husband. ' Egan is about to shoot Maurice, not ' knowing him to be bis own son, when Kathleen confronts him and strikes" the pistol from his hand, at the same time disclosing who she is. The Squire now 1 disowns both bis wife and heir, and eventually Kathleen utters the curse transmitted to her by the^' Bafißliee. 1 * 1 Still her husband remains oWurate, < |Lud in the end meets his doom by being struck dead. During, the four acts | various sensational effecte are introduced , while the situations are very exeitiag, ' and the comedy scenes between Paddy and Molly are exoeptiooially amusing. ; The play will be produced on Wednesday evening next, and we hope to see a » crowded house. ■'