“ROMANCE”

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 962, 3 May 1930, Page 26

“ROMANCE”

Nellie Stewart Returns in a Charming Play ECHO OF HER OWN LIFE There was something appropriate and even wistfully suggestive in Nellie Stewart’s appearance in Edward Sheldon’s play, “Romance,” at the Comedy Theatre, Sydney, writes an Australian critic. For the character she essayed for the first time—that of Cavallini, a supposedly famous diva of the *6o’s of the Victorian era—she must have found some faint echoes of her own. For Nellie Stewart herself was a diva in her day, prima donna of more than 30 comic operas, and Marguerite in a notable production of “Faust” at the Princess’s Theatre in the long ago. At any rate, old memories were stirred when Margherita Cavallini, in her crinoline and curls, and her voluminous, flower-spangled skirts, tripped laughingly on to the stage, and received an ovation, the warmth of which testified to the genuine affection in which her public still holds Nellie Stewart. She has always won out by sheer artistry, and she plays Cavallini with a sure touch. But the part makes demands which she could not wholly satisfy. The long supporting cast was rather uneven. Monica Mack, Dorothy Dewar, Elsie Strickland, Dorothy Dunckley and the capable Marie Dalton were acceptable in comparatively small parts. Those who had seen Nancye Stewart only in a series of ingenue types were amazed at her extraordinary skill and verve as the Italian tire-woman, Vannucci. It was a cameo of character acting. Mayne Lynton, too, whom we usually hate venomously as the villain, was seen in an entirely different vein. He was the aged grandfather of the prologue, and became the distracted young clergyman of the story, his voice vibrant with suppressed emotion. Never once did he overstep the perilous borderline between pathos and bathos. His intensity and bis restraint were alike admirable. Sydney Stirling played Cornelius Van Tyl, Cavallini’s coldly correct lover, on coldly conventional lines. Gaston Mervale, with hardly a word to say, gave an added distinction to a poignant scene. The play is produced by H. LaneBayliff, who was effective, also, in the small part of Adolf, the waiter.