GEACH DRAMATIC COMPANY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9100, 28 May 1908, Page 5

GEACH DRAMATIC COMPANY.

"A MODERN ADVENTURESS." There was a very large audience at the Town Hall last evening when Mr Edwin Geach's Premier Dramatic Company opened its season of two nights with the drama "A Modern Adventuress." The plot, though following orthodox lines so far as the central idea goes, has originality in many of its minor schemes and conspiracies, and though luridly tragic in parts, has a vein of humour running through it which is stronger than J3 usually the case in heavy drama, and which is necessary to give some relief to the audience who would otherwise be simply overcome ij the dreadful'doings of the chief schemer -the modern adventures?. Told briefly, the plot consists cf an attempt by a beautiful but extremely wicked woman, Violet Mereeith (to whom a murder is a mere commonplace) to gain the love of a young man named Harry Belby, whose cousin she impersonates. Harry Delby's father, a mining speculator, has in his employ a man named Wallace Dantor, a conspirer with Violet Meredith to ruin Delby senior. In the first act the latter discovers the treachery of the conspirators, who previously has estranged him from his only son Harry, as part of the scheme to get young Delby into the toils. The murder of Debly senior is the first of Violet Meredith's crimes, and this places the conspirators temporarily in advantage. However, the girls machinations succeed during the next two acts. They succeed in falsely convincing Harry Delby of his wife's infidelity with a former lover, an Italian sculptor namsd Pietro Donelli, and Harry Delby and his wife are divorced. The final act sees retribution, however, but Donelli's life is first sacrificed—the second murder by the adventuress. The reconciliation of Harry Delby and his wife occurs chiefly through the efforts of a rollicking Yorkshireman named John Compton and a maid in the employ of William Delby, whom the Yorkshireman eventually marries. Steve Meredith (Violet's father) and I Walter Beal (of Scotland Yard) also assist in the general downfall of the | two conspirators. As Violet Meredith, Miss Helene Burdett gave a realistic interpretation of a difficult character, and her conspiring friend Danton (Mr R. H. Longton) was also a strong role. Mr Harry Diver's acting in the part of; Pietro Donelli was a fine piece of tragedy, and throughout the piece his personality overshadowed the others. Mias Mabel Lynne, dS Sally Hodges, the 'andy girl, was a parallel modernity with the adventuress, and with j John Compton (Mr Wilton Welch) kept the audience in roars of laughter during the time the pair were on the stage. Harry and Mrs Delby (Vivette) were represented by Mr Ken-, neth Hunter and Miss Rose Brown rigg, who were both very successful. Mr Merry Lynch (William Delby), Edwin Green (Steve Meredith), William Franjks (Constable Kemp) sustained their roles well. The settings of the somewhat numerous scenes were splendid, and the piece from the rise of the curtain kept the audience closely interested —there were no dull periods. The boudoir scene was a particularly line piece of scting, while the frolics of the "'andy girl" were the cause, of loud intermittent laughter.

The company appear again this evening in "The Midnight Hour," when doubtless another crowded house will greet them.