AMUSEMENTS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 165, 21 October 1910, Page 8

AMUSEMENTS.

I " LOVERS' LANK." The Theatre-going public of New Plymouth had a treat last night—at least, that, section of it did which was prepared to accept as a guarantee of excellence the fact that Messrs. Harry l'linimer. Reynolds Denniston, Harry Neville, Ill's. Robert Brough. Miss Lisetto l'arkes and other equally well-known artists were in the cast of "Lovers : Lane," and that even if indifferently written the play could not fail to be well presented. But "Lovers' Lane" is not indifferently written. .It is strong in every feature. The dialogue never loses interest. It is bright to a degree where brightness is aimed at, catchy and wholesomely mirth-provoking. In its more sober passages there is an immense depth of expression, and of enthralling interest. It is a powerful play, weakly named. None wonld think from the title that the love story which permeates the piece without protruding itself too largely is only a sort of side issue, although there are at least three love affairs brought to the verge of the wedding bells' chimes. It is a story of the fight of a broad-minded, wholehearted, chivalrous and generous minister of an English country parish against the conservatism, nay, the obstinate, suspicious and, up till the last moment, unyielding narrow-mindedness of the leaders of his congregation. At one time it

seemed that the village folk, with all their crankiness, were to prevail against the broad beams of benevolence and commonsense shed abroad by the Rev. Singleton (Mr. Harry Plimmer), who had . completely outraged the conventionalities and shocked the sensibilities of the simple country folk by daring to take under his roof the little orphan Siinplici ity Johnson (Miss Lizette Parkes), the despair of the orphanages of the district—a child whom, as the parson himself said, no one understood. He had encouraged beggars by giving a home to a deaf and soft-witted old dame, vyhose sole fear was that she might die in the 1 workhouse. He had offered a home to Mrs. Woodbridge (Mrs. Robert Brongli) ' and her invalid boy after she had been expelled from the church choir and shunned by the leaders of the sewing guild and other ehureli organisations, who had been horrified by the discovery that she had divorced her husband. In their blind, unreasoning jealousy 1 and prejudice, they offered the minister his choice between his living and these people whom he sheltered, after he had given fifteen years' heartwhole work and no inconsiderable portion of his wealth to the church which now hounded him' out. This was one of the most dramatic moments of the piece. All of these "charges," another concerning doctrine, and that the minister had "refused to take a helpmate from the members or -his congregation," which included "several well-favored women," were brought against the parson one evening just before the service by the deacon, who demanded that these matters be changed, his dependents discharged from "his household, or his resignation. Mr. Plimmer was grand just here, when he told them he was ashamed of them all, "And your answer is?" thundered the deacon. "My resignation;" a totally unexpected finale, as far as the deputation was concerned. For declamatory effort this scene would be hard to excel, and for the absolute naturalness of the clergyman's collapse. How the pendulum swung round, and how in six months the congregation found no minister to put up with them, and how they begged of him to come back on his own terms, need no telling. The other vein of the story was equally good. Herbert Woodbridge (Mr. R. Denniston) and Mary Larkin (Miss Myra Wall) came to the Rev. Singleton to be married. Witnesses were required, and by an unforeseen calamity Mrs. Woodbridge was summoned, when it was found that the girl was quite unaware that her intended husband had ever been married. In six months the outcast of society came back, sobered and settled, and he remarried his wife, leaving Mary to the parson, with both of whom it had been a case of love at first sight. Poor old Aunt Martha (Miss Alice Deorwyn) and Uncle Bill (Mr. Harry Neville) threaded their late-in-the-day love story humorously through the evening, and Miss Lizette Parkes was just immense as the tomboy "Simplicity." Her singing of "The Old Red School" and, in fact, the whole scene outside the parish school was good. The imperious but goodhearted Miss Mattie was splendidly played by Miss Valentine Sydney. The acting throughout was flawless, with the exception that "Bridget's" Irish was weak, and she might with advantage change her nationality and leave a complete English setting. As for the minister, the part might well have been written for Mr. Plimmer, for lie lived the part. There is this to say—that those who were absent last night should see "The Passing of the Third Floor Back" to-niglit if they would see the finest company of artists that have trod the local boards for years past. (