19 SEPTEMBER 1846, Page 12

THE THEATRES.

Whatever merit a piece may possess in point of brilliancy or sentiment, the absence of a plot regularly constructed will always be felt as a serious deficiency. The essence of plot is the rising of one incident out of another, so that a unity of purpose is preserved with a unity of intention. With- out plot, there is either a disjointed succession of heterogeneous scenes, or there is a general inertness, that refuses to make progress.

We are sure that all experienced playgoers felt the effect of this absence of plot in a very clever piece produced at the Lyceum, under the title To Parents and Guardians. The sports of the playground and the squabbles, in the study of a suburban boys' school compose the material of the drama; and for a while it is highly diverting to see the swagger of the daring, reckless boy, and the flinching of the timid one. But presently, when tops have been whipped, and eggs have been stolen, and the wrong boy is accused, and the general shout and halloa have occurred for about the twentieth time, one begins to ask whither does all this tend? It is not a drama, but a dramatized picture, kept too long before the audience. This is the only fault we have to find. The dialogue is well written,' and the characters are represented in the best possible spirit. The dashing, impudent schoolboy, (admirably played by Mrs. Keeley,) tyrannizes with impunity over the dull schoolboy, (acted with ludicrous melancholy by Mr. Keeley); but there is always enough of kindness in the former to prevent him from being repulsive, and enough of good feeling in the latter to make him more than a mere dolt, and to give him a sort of interest. A pathetic contrast to the noise and bustle of the school is created by the dramatic story of the old French usher; so that, if we may be allowed to speak somewhat paradoxically, the piece has an underplot without having a plot. There is nothing novel in this tale, which consists of the sorrows of the old Frenchman and his daughter, who have been ruined by the Revo- lution' mid after many years of separation meet at last; but it derives great effect from the very excellent acting of Mr. Wigan: whose representation of the man broken down by adverse circumstances, but retaining all his dig- nity of mind, is perfect.