“THE CRADLE SNATCHERS”

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 195, 7 November 1927, Page 15

“THE CRADLE SNATCHERS”

COMING TO HIS MAJESTY’S An extraordinary amount oC interest has been invested in the initial New Zealand production on Thursday night nevt of the world-famous farcecomedy, ‘‘Cradle Snatchers,” which enjoyed the longest run of any comedy ever staged in Sydney. It was taken off while it was still attracting record audiences and it is to be revived there at the conclusion of the present New Zealand tour. This farce-comedy presented by a specially selected J. C. Williamson Company, has a most unusual plot, with a cast that for individual and collective strength has never been excelled in this country. Its framework is a firm support for an attractive fabric of wit and satire, confidence and exposures, domestic lies and home truths. The lines are witty, bright, decidedly original, and all with a point. The “Cradle Snatchers” themselves are three middle-aged married women, not by any means unprepossessing, played by Olive Sloane (Susan Martin), Bertha Belmore (Mrs. Lrake) and Jessamine Newcombe (Mrs. Ladd). The “snatched” are three young men (“fresh” or callow). The women to reawaken their husbands’ love, and to prove that men cannot have it all their own way in such matters, decide to hire the boys to pretend to make love to them. The fun comes fast and furious, and when the husbands return from their “duck-shooting” expedition, they are astounded and confounded to find that their wives are (apparently, for the whole thing is a joke on the men) going the pace in the most thorough manner. Maury Tuckerman (Oscar Nordholm, the big Swede), Jack Halloran (Jose Vallerjo) and Fred Conynham (Henry Winton) make up the trio of gallant youths who are hired, and they play their parts well indeed. The three erring husbands are played by Herbert Belmore, Sidney Sterling and Arthur Cornell, and they prove themselves to be highly capable artists. The cast also includes Lucille Lisle, Elma Gibbs, Claire St. Claire, Mollie Fisher. The season is to be a brief one. The box plans will be opened to-morrow mofning.