“Far-off Hills”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 554, 5 January 1929, Page 20

“Far-off Hills”

Lennox Robinson Writes New Play

ENTHUSIASTIC RECEPTION

In his new comedy, “The Far-off Hills,” Lennox Robinson has written one of the brightest, if not the brightest, comedies that has ever come from the pen of an Irish dramatist. The plot concerns Marian Clancy, a girl of 20-odd years, who believes that she should enter a convent. Since the death of her mother a few years previously, she has undertaken the management of the household. Her two young sisters are her special charge, and she is particularly insistent upon their acquiring an education which will enable them in time to become independent. Her father is practically blind, and is to be operated on in less than a year. These facts stand in the way of Marian becoming a nun, but she is content to wait patiently until the completion of her sister’s education and her father’s recovery leave her free to do so.

In her capacity of manager she drives her sisters* to t:» : point of revolt, while she instructs her father to discourage the visits of two old friends who do not conforln to her ideas of respectability. The only people whom Marian receives with anything approaching cordiality are Susie Tynan, another old friend of her father's, and Harold Mahony, whose wife had gone insane on their honeymoon, and had since been confined to a lunatic asylum. There is nothing for it, as far as the two children are concerned, but to bring about a marriage between

their father and Miss Tynan, and in a very refreshing scene the youngsters disclose their plan to the lady in question.

Miss Tynan falls in with the children’s idea, and in a neatly writen scene she brings about a renewal of the proposal. Everybody is delighted, including Marian, and the household looks forward to tile emancipatiou which will result from the. marriage, and Marian’s entering the convent. Marian, however, dispels these hopes by declaring that, while Miss Tynan will look after the father, she must still remain to take care of the children’s education.

The last act transpires on the evening on which the newly married ecgtple are expected home from the honeymoon. Harold Mahony’s wifeVhas died, and he has also returned from a month s rest, taken on doctor’s orders Marian, in the meantime, has discovered that she has no desire to enter the convent, and she encourages Harold to propose to her. He, however, is shocked at Marian's abandoning her vocation, and declines the hint The truth about herself and about Harold is revealed by Marian when she calmly accuses him of being a romancer. Both are alike. Each has persuaded the other to the belief that they wanted something that was apparently unobtainable. Once it became obtainable, its desirability vanished. Hence the title, “Far-off Hills,” of the play. A further surprise comes iu the form of the discovery by Marian that she is in love with Pierce Hegarty, Susie Tynan's nephew, whom she thought she hated. They become engaged after a very brief wooing of the “caveman” kind.

If one is to judge by the first night audience at the Abbev Theatre Dublin, “The Far-off Hills” should very soon find its way to the high levels of popularity. Incidentally, it is so written that it might be said to take place anywhere, and an all-Irish cast will not be necessary for the play’s success in London or New York.