CURRENT LITERATURE

Hokitika Guardian, 24 December 1925, Page 3

CURRENT LITERATURE

GY FUTURE. Mr Silt lon A am- is a dramatist, says a reviewer, who seems to specialise in the supernatural. Ilis "Outward Bound." one id the theatrical successes of its year, was written about a shipIced of people who were crossing Ihe Styx to their last judgment. His "Overture." which was produced in London recently, reverses the process; tin' characters come out of the void to the adventure' of living. The* idea is apparently that they are allowed a trial trip, as it were. If they find hie desirable they will be' granted a second inearnat ion. Disillusioned and weary, they do not lake advantage of the opportunity.

Tlie play opens in the "the Making Shop." 011 the other side of the Styx, ulcere thi' unborn are awaiting to be carried over the river. Mr Charon, junior, a smart young fellow, with a gill of repartee like a 'bus eonduetor, is issuing ret urn tickets. The intending travellers have already assumed the forms that, are to be theirs on earth, and have a premonition of what is to lie their destiny. Thus .Mrs Bagleigh anticipates her social triumphs. .Miss Prudence secs herself as an elderly spinster, doing good works and spoiling thi> Sunday school children in a pretty English village. Mr Justiee Flush is aware that he will be elevated to the Bench, and Sinclair that h.e will achieve his darling ambition of playing Hamlet. Air Smith and l,adv Jasmine dream ol their grand passion, while I lie Cockney costermonger savours in advance the delights of “eor fee." All are in a state of rather please! expectanrv with the l exception ot A noth. who stubbornly refuses to be barn, stiller- from an attack of symbolie indigestion, and ejaculates at Irequent intervals "I’m bilious!" Thai condition may aiioum for her adoluiuable rudeness 10 : u>others. | otter we ,-ce I bent all eiilr-r m typical or ill critical moments of lin ir careers. Mrs Bagleigh is a society leader. File has married money. Her entertainments are the talk ot London : her emerajcls the finest in England. Yet success turns to dust and ashes in her mouth. She knows that people only cultivate her for what filmy can get out of her. She and her husband have nothing in common. Her plain daughter canned "get, oil." Sinclair climbs high in his profession, hut, his “Hamlet” is a frosty M iss Prudence finds her village, and is contented enough in a negative' sort ot fa.Ji.io 11 . until the vicar, who has inspired her gentle heart with hopes, shatters them by becoming engaged to her young companion. Smith. the artist, marries his model—an action which he soon regrets. Then lie runs away with Lady .Jasmine, deserts her. returns 1.0 Grace, his wile, and goes rapidly downhill. Hie betrayed girl, erazecl by her treatment. seeks out ■Grace and kills her. and is sent to the scaffold by .Mr Justice Plush. That Gentleman, when dying, dreams that, he is being tried by a jury, of those whom he had sentenced to death, with Hie public hangman as loreinait and Lady Jasmine as Judge. He is condemned to live lor ever. Lite deals hardly wit Vi. all of them. The only one of them who tastes any real happiness is the humble costermonger. That is because ho is kind. ’I he rest: think of no one hut themselves. He thinks of others. In the last scene they all come back across the Styx, where Mr Charon, junior, collects the tickets, and asks how they have enjoyed themselves. They are worn out and disappointed. With the exception of the Cockney, they have not found life worth living. Tlu-v bring with hem the hobbies with which iliey solaced thorn-elves when on earth. Miss Prudence has her kmttine- needles, the Judge his water colour. Sinclair his toy theatre None of them has the slightest wish to Ik* horn a second time. But Acnitli, who now seems to have recovered from her bilious attack, goes joyfully away to become the child of the Costermonger s wife In Youth’s mouth is put the moral of the play. The important thing when we are born is that ue should Ik* kind—an unchallengeable proposition, hut scareoly a novel one. The plav is a series ol episodes connected only by the general idea. I hole is little action; indeed, the scene oetween Lady Jasmine and Grace alone I'tas dramatic quality. But the 1 ><]- loeue is effective, and the characterise ion especially in the ease ot Miss PtimTenee and the Costermonger ts excellent. However, with Mr • ustic * Plush the author Ims faded badly. It is quite inconceivable that a tne.nlter „f the judiciarv should suppose the expression "Yeni. Midi. A >«’ ta be Greek. Moreover, the charges against him are unfair and unwarranted it is idle to talk of a "Hanging Judge, or to hold him up to execration beet use lie has sent people t<> the gallows. or because death on the is not always instantaneous. Le. las only done his duty. The law i«pii c that the death sentence must _l>. pas. - e-1 upon persons tound guilty ot cci tain offences. The Judge has no. alternative ; the responsibility is the juiy s.