“BACK FROM THE GRAVE.”

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5658, 19 May 1879, Page 3

“BACK FROM THE GRAVE.”

Tho following is the plot of Mr, George Darrell’s mystic sensation drama, “ Back from the Grave," to be produced for the first time in Wellington at the Imperial Opera House this evening ; Tho action takes place in England, partly m London and partly in tho midland town of Middlesboro’. Tho period is the present. The rise of the curtain reveals the country house of Dudley Ilivers, a wealthy banker, and here assembled under his roof are his wife, Elinor Elvers (Mrs. George Darrell) ; his niece, Ethel Grey ; her governess, Iren® Eeefton, an orphan ; and Captain Reginald Eivers, nephew to Dudley Eivers. Tony Dibbs and Dolly Derwett are respectively groom and ladies’ maid to the Eivers family. At Middlcsbro’ also, on a flying visit, we find Sydney St. Aubrey (Mr. George Darrell), author and actor. Ethel is intended for Reginald, yet loves St, Aubrey,_ whilst Reginald as perversely disobeys his uncle s wishes by offering his addresses to the penniless governess. Thus matters stand when one Philip Carlton or Ralph Jeffries arrives. Inan interview with Mrs. Eivers this man declares himself to be Phillip Carlton, her former husband, long supposed dead. He had deserted his wife and son some years before, and as a blackleg and defaulter had absconded from England to Australia. Five years later came the news of his death, and his widow married again. Now he returned, ns from the grave. During tho scene between husband and wife Carlton bitterly reproaches Elinor for marrying Eivers ; branding the latter as a sanctimonious Hypocrite, who had first betrayed and abandoned his (Carlton’s) only sister, and then. ruined and exposed Carlton to their mutual friends and associates. It transpires that Irene Eefton, the governess, is the child of Carlton’s sister, her father Dudley Eivers. Shortly afterwards the youthful lovers are surprised by Dudley Eivers, who indignantlyorders St. Aubrey to quit his grounds for daring to address words of love to Ethel ; whilst his own daughter Irene he peremptorily commands to prepare for her departure on the morrow. Elinor Rivers or Carlton dares not betray her knowledge of Irene’s parentage, or explain the terrible situation she herself is placed in, and the act ends with the departure of Irene with St. Aubrey, who has offered her the shelter of a brother’s home. Tho next scene shows the abduction of Ethel Grey by Carlton ; his reasons for so doing being to punish Eivers, and compel Elinor Eivers to supply him with money to ensure his silence and Ethel’s release. St. Aubrey arrives shortly after the abduction, and swears to devote himself to the restitution of the woman he loves. The last scene of the act produces a stormy interview between Carlton and Elinor, the latter demanding the release of Ethel, otherwise she will brave all, and place the police on Carlton’s track. Directly after her departure St. Aubrey arrives and confronts Carlton. By mesmeric power he subdues Carlton entirely to his will, and in a clairvoyant state, he sees Ethel in her place of imprisonment. Si. Aubrey, arousing from the trance, awakens Carlton from his mesmeric sleep, and insists on tho latter taking him to the place where Ethel is imprisoned. Carlton refuses, and tho two engage in a deadly struggle. Carlton is about to plunge a knife into his opponent's heart, when Elinor Eivers rushes in and averts the blow, avowing herself to be Carlton’s wife and St. Aubrey’s mother. Thus father, mother, and son know each other for the first time. In the third act Elinor explains to St. Aubrey that she had changed his name and concealed his parentage. St. Aubrey refuses to accept Carlton as bis father. He has learnt that Philip Carlton is now the chief of a gang of coiners who carry on their trade at an old farm house in the country. The police intend swooping down upon them, and Carlton and ids associates will, if snared, be placed in a felon’s dock. At the instigation of his mother, if possible to save Carlton, St. Aubrey joins the gang in disguise ; and, in league with the police, endeavors to trap the coiners, letting Carlton escape. Another motive of St, Aubrey's action is the release of Ethel, who is confined in an upper chamber of the farmhouse, of which Carlton carries the key, St. Aubrey, feigning t 6 he drunk, is left in the lower room. The coiners are at work in the cellars, and ail is prepared for the advent of the detectives, when a terrific explosion, followed by a rush of flames, sets the entire building on Are. As tho coiners emerge they are attacked and over- 1 powered by the police. £t. Aubrey seizes Carlton, wrests from him the key, and saves ' Ethel. In the last act St. Aubrey, again 1 in a clairvoyant state, presumably witnesses ' a scene enacted in the Australian bush some 20 years prior to the period of the trance. The vision is materialised to the audience as follows :—Three men, attired as diggers, are encamped in the hush. The centre figure is the true Philip Carlton, Ealph Jeffries (the Philip Carlton of the drama), and Dan Ackford, an accomplice of the soidisant Philip Carlton, Over the division of their gold a row ensues, and Carlton accusing Jefferies of robbery, a struggle takes place, and Carlton is killed by Jefferies. The vision closes, and St. Aubrey awakens. Imbued with a firm belief in tho truth of his clairvoyant impressions, he determines to act thereon. In his absence Elinor Eivers, driven almost to distraction by the weight and shame of the terrible secret she is concealing from her supposed husband, Dudley Eivers, is about to reveal all, when the abrupt 1 arrival of Jeffries complicates matters once again, Jeffries, now driven to bay, seeks shelter and protection from Elinor, and pecuniary aid to enable him to escape the pountry, She refuses, Dudley interposes, and i Jeffries at last openly avows himself as the husband of Elinor Rivers. At this critical juncture St. Aubrey arrives with Ackford, and .the fraud and impersonation are exposed. The realisation of tho vision is complete. The rest is soon told, Jeffries is consigned to prison, husband and wife are re-united, Irene finds a father and a husband, St. Aubrey and Ethel are similarly favored, and all ends ' happily- ,