AMUSEMENTS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 161, 17 October 1910, Page 3

AMUSEMENTS

PASSING (IF THE THIRD FLOOR' BACK."

Tin 1 Hamilton, Plimmer and Dennfsfon Company will appear in 'the Theatre Royal on Thursday and Friday, Octobev 20 and 21. On the opening they will stage "Lovers' Lane," and on Friday wil. stage the mysterious play, "The Passing jof-the-'Third Floor Buck," which is totally different' from any of Jerohre K. Jerome's works New Zealand has''seen before.

To each- person in turn the gentlemannevedr stranger brings understanding and clearness of vision. As Ue talks softly to. her, the cheating landlady is reminded of her,better, past, of the time of her life" when she hqine on third Fridays" before her tiring strug 1 gle for existence had brok'eri''li'er'faith' in her fellow-creatures. The "slovenly waiting-maid, from the work'ou'se, lias awakened to a sense-of self-respect arid'ii recognition of virtue and goodness, and, listening to the kind-faced new boarder, she throws away the tawdry etnerala ear-rings. The snpbbish lady "*ousin to Sir George Tweedle, Bart.," is brought to see the silliness of her imagined;need j that-.sherivust wear {leep'nfpiiritfng-iQJr "her' late Majesty, the Queen of Xapl.es," and to realise her cruelty in casting oft her sister who had gone wrong. In d. sense a -miracle■•-is, worked before the eyes of the audience in a modern board'l ing-liouse, that is to say, the graceless occupants of tire place are so influenced by the presence of "the stranger" and by his acts and works that in every instance "the better' self is victorious-in the tight against the bad personal qualities. To a shabby-genteel boardinghouse in London—a house of deceit, dishonesty and discontent, in which selfishness poisons the atmosphere and good thoughts eoriie without' -welcome and depart without regret—there comes in the mysterious half-lights at dusk a gentlemannered stranger with a sanctuary voice and a face like-a benediction. A back-room'on the third floor is the best that can be offered to the new boarder. Before his arrival the house has been made miserable not actually, by poverty and misfortune, but by bitterness of feeling and s'ourifess- of heart, and by the false pretences-'of .-'merr and women who have forsaken -truth-' and orgotten have forsaken?-'-truth '■' and forgotten forwardness. The-'' -degenerate- ..human type in the boarding-house includes, a landlady who cheats »tid makes a science of meanness, a oa'd;'a rogue; and callous married snob, a store wdish wife, a lady who paints her face and wears false hair'a slavey'•without the 'prompting of a soul, and a girl who is willing to jilt her lover\(a poor artist) so that she may live in luxury as the wife of a coarse creature who lias made his money as a betting man; -.";'- . The box plan is at Collier's, with no extra booking charges.