ruene Kakadu
P
9.3. D(
aunannannumK##mmmnnnnummnnmmamnanmuneassse
box 15/3
Liz. To him, in her shawl and battered hat,
her face is the sudden revelation of woman.
So that whien Higgins comes in furious search
of his wife big Jim knocks him about a bit
for a change. Then when the husband is out
of the way he proposes that they shall live to¬
gether, and is almost eloquent in his new¬
found passion. She consents, but the pride
of being a +respectable weman?' is strong
upon her, and she steals back to Bill Higgins.
That individual, although he wants her back
badly, is inflamed now by jealousy, and she
flies from him again and back to Jim.
SIGNIFICANT ACTING.
#t is here that we havena magnifcant pfece
##eting. They discuss-their miserable posi¬
tion, und we sce that Jim is immediately
###lem uidl distrustful thateshe-went buck to
her husband at all. There have been hinis
betore that Jim is aqueer fellow. Now under
tiie stress of his first emotion we seem to see
his mind snap.
He realises the miserable
position of the woman, thrown out again by
her drunken brute of a husband, and now sus¬
pected a little, against his will, by himself,
the man who wanted to grotect her. One can
see the craziness working in hin face. There
is only one way out with a woman with her
back to the wall, and he supplies it. He picks
up a knife from the table and stabs her as
she gives him his first caress from woman.
Mr. Norman McKinnel was splendid as the
bemused Jim, and Miss May Blayney as Liz
Higgins gave a piece of restrained, perfect
character acting, with every little point made,
such as is rarely seen on the stage. In the
final scene the madness gradually creeping
over Jim's face andthe bewilderment and then
terror over hers were very finely rendered.
Mrs. Ada King as a sort of female Caliban,
keeper of the“ doss-house, and Mr. Edmond
Brcon as the cowardly and blustering Bill
Higgins, were both excellent. The piece itself
was very warmly received. It secmed a pity
that the author could find no way out excepe
the table knife, but that was how poor Jim
saw the situation. In a way, it is too much
to ask us to believe that the situation would
have turned Jim’s head, but Mr. MeKinnel
certainly realised it on the stage.
The sccond piece was Arthur Schnitzler's.
1
brilliant“ grotesque“ The Green Cockatoo.
and from loy life in London tö-düy ve Wer
taken to low life in the Paris of 1789. This
one-act play of.
zler’s has already been
deseribgll in T#at the tinne ot its
performance by the Incorporated Stage Society
neaxly a year ago, but it will be as well to
regörd again its main outlines. The scene
pässes in an underground den, half tavern,
half theatre, called“ The Green Cockatoo,
where amid realistie surroundings the
fashionables of the day come to quiz at
a tattered crew of actors who pretend to be
eriminals.
THE TRAGEDY.
The best of the barnstorming crew is Henry,
a genius in his way, who has just marrisd
Léocadie, an actress of generous amours.
Henry comes in and recites, fo the general
horror, how he has just killed the Duc de
Cadignan because he discovered him in bis
wife’s dressing-room at the Porte St. Martin
Theatre. The spell of horror is broken by
the entrance of the Duke, and everybody,
noblemen, noble dames, and tatterdemalions,
realise that it was önly Henry’s little joke—
but a brilliant onc. But at the same moment
Henry realises that what he has been joking
about is true in fact, and he stabs the Duke
just as the rabble burst in frem the taking of
the Bastille. And the curtain comes down
on the nobles fighting their way out of the
cellar, the whiole big joke of the crew who
as actors have been wonr to spit at the amüsed
aristocrats suddenly turned to grim reality.
Unfortunately, one could not help ccmpar¬
ing last night’s performance with the previous
one, and it suffered by that comparison in all
points. There was too much shouting, so that
the rather involved action of the piece was
obscured. The stage also is hardly big cnough
for what has to take place on it. But those
who did not see the first performance will ho¬
doubt enjoy this one very much. Mr. Norman
Mekinnel played Henry, but he did not
realise the quaint mixture of genius and
braggadocio in the part as Mr. Leon Quarter¬
maine did. Miss Sarah Brocke, Mr. Malcolm
Cherry, and others were very good as they
aristocrats.
P
9.3. D(
aunannannumK##mmmnnnnummnnmmamnanmuneassse
box 15/3
Liz. To him, in her shawl and battered hat,
her face is the sudden revelation of woman.
So that whien Higgins comes in furious search
of his wife big Jim knocks him about a bit
for a change. Then when the husband is out
of the way he proposes that they shall live to¬
gether, and is almost eloquent in his new¬
found passion. She consents, but the pride
of being a +respectable weman?' is strong
upon her, and she steals back to Bill Higgins.
That individual, although he wants her back
badly, is inflamed now by jealousy, and she
flies from him again and back to Jim.
SIGNIFICANT ACTING.
#t is here that we havena magnifcant pfece
##eting. They discuss-their miserable posi¬
tion, und we sce that Jim is immediately
###lem uidl distrustful thateshe-went buck to
her husband at all. There have been hinis
betore that Jim is aqueer fellow. Now under
tiie stress of his first emotion we seem to see
his mind snap.
He realises the miserable
position of the woman, thrown out again by
her drunken brute of a husband, and now sus¬
pected a little, against his will, by himself,
the man who wanted to grotect her. One can
see the craziness working in hin face. There
is only one way out with a woman with her
back to the wall, and he supplies it. He picks
up a knife from the table and stabs her as
she gives him his first caress from woman.
Mr. Norman McKinnel was splendid as the
bemused Jim, and Miss May Blayney as Liz
Higgins gave a piece of restrained, perfect
character acting, with every little point made,
such as is rarely seen on the stage. In the
final scene the madness gradually creeping
over Jim's face andthe bewilderment and then
terror over hers were very finely rendered.
Mrs. Ada King as a sort of female Caliban,
keeper of the“ doss-house, and Mr. Edmond
Brcon as the cowardly and blustering Bill
Higgins, were both excellent. The piece itself
was very warmly received. It secmed a pity
that the author could find no way out excepe
the table knife, but that was how poor Jim
saw the situation. In a way, it is too much
to ask us to believe that the situation would
have turned Jim’s head, but Mr. MeKinnel
certainly realised it on the stage.
The sccond piece was Arthur Schnitzler's.
1
brilliant“ grotesque“ The Green Cockatoo.
and from loy life in London tö-düy ve Wer
taken to low life in the Paris of 1789. This
one-act play of.
zler’s has already been
deseribgll in T#at the tinne ot its
performance by the Incorporated Stage Society
neaxly a year ago, but it will be as well to
regörd again its main outlines. The scene
pässes in an underground den, half tavern,
half theatre, called“ The Green Cockatoo,
where amid realistie surroundings the
fashionables of the day come to quiz at
a tattered crew of actors who pretend to be
eriminals.
THE TRAGEDY.
The best of the barnstorming crew is Henry,
a genius in his way, who has just marrisd
Léocadie, an actress of generous amours.
Henry comes in and recites, fo the general
horror, how he has just killed the Duc de
Cadignan because he discovered him in bis
wife’s dressing-room at the Porte St. Martin
Theatre. The spell of horror is broken by
the entrance of the Duke, and everybody,
noblemen, noble dames, and tatterdemalions,
realise that it was önly Henry’s little joke—
but a brilliant onc. But at the same moment
Henry realises that what he has been joking
about is true in fact, and he stabs the Duke
just as the rabble burst in frem the taking of
the Bastille. And the curtain comes down
on the nobles fighting their way out of the
cellar, the whiole big joke of the crew who
as actors have been wonr to spit at the amüsed
aristocrats suddenly turned to grim reality.
Unfortunately, one could not help ccmpar¬
ing last night’s performance with the previous
one, and it suffered by that comparison in all
points. There was too much shouting, so that
the rather involved action of the piece was
obscured. The stage also is hardly big cnough
for what has to take place on it. But those
who did not see the first performance will ho¬
doubt enjoy this one very much. Mr. Norman
Mekinnel played Henry, but he did not
realise the quaint mixture of genius and
braggadocio in the part as Mr. Leon Quarter¬
maine did. Miss Sarah Brocke, Mr. Malcolm
Cherry, and others were very good as they
aristocrats.