"THE PASSING OF THE THIRD FLOOR BACK."

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10157, 29 November 1910, Page 7

"THE PASSING OF THE THIRD FLOOR BACK."

The Hamilton, Plimmer and Denniston will appear in the Masterton Town Mall next Friday with "Lovers Lane," and on the second night, Saturday, will stage of the Third Floor Back. lhe poetiy and the sordid realism of he jostle one another continually in Jerome K: Jerome's strange ne onmedv '.The author seems to m shadow forth this fact ui the utle, in which the first *oid conveys a sense of mystery, whilst the last is a technical phrase peculiar to locking-house keepers in London. The moomsbury boarding-house, unon which the curtain rises, is cleSed by u» acidulated landlady as :"a den of lions," but it is, m fact a den of thieves, illustrating the adage | that 'humanity must perforce prey upon itself." In this teacup whirlpool of the petty meanness of social life there suddenly drops an element of good. It is not necessary to suppose that the author intended the Passer-by to be Christ Himself. The Symbolical nature of the character is, however, insisted upon, and the suggestion -that the Stranger represents the Better Self seems to amply meet the dramatic situation. Ho nasses bv, and he passes out, this Angel of Grace, and leaves the Cheat, the Slavey, the Painted Lady, the Shrew, the Snob, tne Bully, the Hussv, the Satyr, the Coward, the Oad, "and the Rogue all touched with human gentleness and mutual ]ovo. Necessaniy, the playwright s-< scheme requires delicate handling. Tt forms, indeed, one of the mostfragile pieces that could be imagined, j The methodical symmetry of the j working out, the knowledge that the Stranger must 'tackle" every individual backslider in turn, as if at a school examination, and the occasional intrusion of the supernatural into the commonplace of every-day existence, create stage conditions demanding the utmost care and artistic experience upon the part of the players. The "H.P.D." Company bring all this to bear on the play and the result is a very fine performance. The box plan at Miss Rives' opens to-morrow, with no booking charges. Day sales will also ho obtainable at Miss Rives'.