“ELIZA COMES TO STAY”

Taranaki Daily News, 6 December 1926, Page 10

“ELIZA COMES TO STAY”

PHILOSOPHY AND LAUGHTER. “Eliza Conies to Stay." She came to the Opera House on Saturday night and during her brief stay of a few hours delighted the audience which witnessed this three-act farce by Joseph Cunningham’s new comedy company. When Sandy Verrall promised his lifelong friend that fie would cherish and care for his daughter, he pictured a golden-haired child with blue eyes and a trusting soul. But with Eliza (Miss Zillah Bateman) arrived also disillusionment. The apparition which appeared, and for which he had bought a teddy bear and rocking horse, was not a child —indeed she was far from it as Verrall himself, the man who had promised to cherish the little golden-haired child, was to realise. Her hair was certainly golden, but if she was to be “safe,” as she was told by her aunt, she must wear the worst of clothes, and this she did. With her old clothes, straw cadie, big specks and “bunned” hair nothing more grotesque could be imagined than Eliza. She thinks, however, that it would be nice to be “dangerous” for once and accordingly, in Verrall's absence, sets to work. Fine clothes and careful tuition by Verrall’s friend, Montague Jordan, effected an almost inconceivable transformation, and Eliza (or Dorothy as she was then called) blossoms out and is “dangerous" at last, as Verrall soon perceives. “Eliza Comes to Stay” affords an abundance of amusing situations. Montague Jordan wishes to. marry Dorothy, but declares the engagement off when she changes back to Eliza. Miss Bateman fills the role of Eliza with great credit, first as the neglected, uneducated and delightfully candid waif, and later as the spirited, graceful and “dangerous” young lady. Her song in the second act was received with prolonged applause. Frank Bradley could not have been better placed than in the part of Montague Jordan, the best friend of Verrall, and upon whom fell the initial tribulations caused by the unceremonious entrance of the fair Eliza. His embarassed proposal of marriage and his admission that he was “not used to this sort of thing.” were among the funniest. Campbell Copelin, as Verrall, carried the responsibility of Eliza on his shoulders. Lady Pennybrook, prim and early Victorian, but a matchmaker for all that, was portrayed by Miss Henrietta Cavendish in a very pleasing manner. Miss Sylvia Clifton had the part of Vera Laurence, an actress, whose sole ambition was embraced by the two words, “clothes” and “money.’’ Norman Carter played Alexander Stoop Verrall, a member of the old school. Other parts were: Herbert, the valet, played by Moncrietf McCallum; Mrs. Allaway, the nurse, by Miss Beryl Barraclough; and a porter, by Jack Phillips. “Eliza Comes to Stay” is chock full of philosophy, is replete with laughs, and is not without its moral. It will be played at Hawera to-night.