PRE WAR STUFF

Southland Times, Issue 20081, 19 January 1927, Page 6

PRE WAR STUFF

‘ELIZA COMES TO STAY

ESMOND FARCE COMEDY

ZILLAH BATEMAN SEASON CLOSES

Originally written and produced in 1912, Henry V. Esmond’s “Eliza Comes to Stay,” which was presented at the Municipal Theatre last night by the Lillah Bateman Comedy Co., bears evidence of its age. Belonging to the pre-war days its most daring moments are too mild to be seriously considered as excuses for guarded chuckles and its comedy for most part is too sober for the modern ideas of farce. “Eliza Comes to Stay” (or “Sandy and his Eliza” as it was called in its swaddling days) is built on a theme so old in the theatre that it can be depended to look after itself. It is that caterpillar variant of the “Cinderella” theme in which the beauteous damsel looking a terrible fright is cast into the care of the eligible young man as his ward when he has been expecting a child of seven or eight years. The eligible young man is sought by a scheming woman and he is about to marry her when the caterpillar turns into the ravishingly beautiful butterfly and captures her prince-guardian to the intense satisfaction of the people who are collecting their coats in anticipation of the National Anthem. "The Marriage of Kitty" and ‘The Morals of Marcus” are cousins of “Eliza Comes to Stay,” and they are more intelligent members of the family because they approach nearer to genuine comedy. Of course, “Eliza Comes to Stay” is unfortunate in appearing fourteen years after its birth in circumstances demanding that it must whirl about in boisterous fun-mak-ing as a slap dash farce that can be Allen Dooned by the introduction of “Annie Laurie.” Unquestionably it. appeared as a more skilled piece of writing when it was handled with the reticence that characterised the theatre of its proper period. When the Esmond lines are drawn with heavy under markings to emphasise the most blatant portions of its humour, the subltities are lost in the tumult and the audience, without knowing the cause, is left wondering at the thin portions which every now and again threaten to leave arid holes in the night. For this undue emphasis some of the members of the company which played “Eliza Comes to Stay” were responsible last night. Although it was called a farce-comedy, “Eliza Comes to Stay” has some of the substance of English comedy in it and last night it was only when Mr Frank Bradley and Miss Henrietta Cavendish got hold of it that this fact became apparent. Miss Lillah Bateman who rejoices in the unqualified downrightness of broad farce made Eliza a creature of impossible extravagances in ridiculousness, so that the metamorphosis at the expiration of a month was both too much and too little. Eliza did not have the excuse that she was a deliberate schemer from the start, assuming an “antick disposition” like Hamlet for her own purposes, but in Miss Bateman’s conception of the role one formed the impression in the first and second acts that the young lady was deliberately acting. This Eliza wa%not doing. It was Miss Bateman who was acting deliberately and in that lay her failure to present a convincing picture. Miss Sylvia Clifton as Vera Lawrence, the actress, had more to do than in “The Unfair Sex,” but one noticed again overmuch effort in her gestures and a lack of ease in the handling of her lines. To the more experienced she will develop attractively because she has many possessions which suggest a promising future. Miss Cavendish has a long experience behind her. She understands how to point a line with a look. The nicely adjusted modulations of her voice and the reserve with which she treats the situations in which she is placed are decidedly refreshing in an age when these things are so often rejected as unnecessary lumber. Mr Frank Bradley in a characterisation on light comedy fines made Montague Jordan a neat piece of portraiture, slightly exaggerated, of course, to fit the frame, but never too much so. The comedy of Montague Jordan was always delightful. Mr Copelin's Sandy Verrail was breezy, but a trifle raucous—he belongs to the present period, but not to the atmosphere of “Eliza Comes to Stay.” Last night’s performance which went well before a large house terminated the company’s Invercargill season.