THE THEATRE.
" THE LEAGUE OF NOTIONS " AT 111..E NEW OXFORD THEATRE.
ON the • posters which used to advertise .My Old Dutch was the legend, " This play will kill divorce." Of The League of Notions one might say, "This play will kill Chu Chin Chow." Not that we bear Chu Chin Chow or The Garden of Allah or any other spectacle any ill-will, but The League of Notions actually carries out what those plays attempt. Plays of this class do not usually-aim at musical ingenuity; the fiddlers fiddle, we will not say to the gallery, but to the more imbecile members of the audience in all parts of the house. The plots—the "Notions," one may say—are always rudimentary. These plays set out to charm our eyes and to produce an effect of gaiety. The League of Notions delivers the goods. Except the beauties of severity and restraint, there is every other delight for the eye; several of the scenes and groups are the most beautiful pieces of colour and " stage effect " that I have had the happiness to see. Mr. James Reynolds, who, the pro- gramme tells us, is responsible for the setting and costumes, is immensely to be congratulated. Some of his Russian dresses and some of the Vogue costumes of the First Act are fully worthy of Bakst.
The scene " Hell's Kitchen (Somewhere in Soho)" is, like
the one on which the cloth of silver curtain rises, a very artful piece of stage design. It is chiefly in tones of grey. A sort of irregular-shaped recess at the back has above it a long horizontal window with bright green bars to it. Through this window the feet of those coming down on to the stage are seen. There is a staircase on -one side. The effect is, from some felicity of proportion, fine and massive. It is against this scene that the Russian characters appear. There are six or seven wonderful young men bearing seven-branched candlesticks, who- wear Russian costume which the Diaghileff Ballet itself has never surpassed. They were so intricately dazzling that I have really forgotten their details, but I know that they were completed by short jackets of a deep blue with a beautiful raised pattern of trees in jade green and an embroidered border of two sorts of purple. The effect was entrancing. Mr. Reynolds is also particularly happy with a peculiar sort of deep magenta red which he combines with a scarlet that is almost orange in an extraordinarily pleasurable effect. These colours form the basis of the costumes of some of the Russian peasant women, who were quite gorgeous with their short, full skirts in these colours, with touches of bright green and gold on the bodice. I wish, however, Mr. Reynolds would implore the two dancers to keep their head handkerchiefs on—their faces are so unsuitably English when they appear with their own crimped hair. There were also three Russian state costumes—I mean the type which survived till lately for great occasions—which were beautiful. The Dance with the Benda Masks is most remarkable. Perhaps the first mask was the most enchanting, in which Miss Grace Cristie looks exactly like a Burmese ivory statuette. I do not think one of the audience guessed, until she took it off, that the lace was as removable as the headdress. She had the decadent elegance of a Dulac princess oome to life, a face of the most exquisite refinement and sensibility. She is a clever dancer, for as well as this swooning Eastern business she did a comic dance with a foolish apple-cheeked mask which made her look like one of Dostoievsky's silly, hare-brained women. I think, by the way, she would have looked better in this. dance if she had worn more clothes. There is an extraordinary contrast between hef quite ordinary pretty " Dance of the Silver Bubble " and this distinguished performance.
Among the comic episodes there were a pair of the most admir. able acrobats—Fortunello and Cirillino—almost the best that I have ever seen, and a very amusing " recollection " of the old Oxford Theatre—the principal boy and conscientious, senti- mental tenor.
The finale; the "Bridal Veil," was not, I think, a great success. In the first place, to adopt the role of Smelfungus for a
moment, it is an entire illusion to suppose that brides of all ages invariably dressed in white; they wore their best clothes, and that was all. It was not till the charming Winterhalter lady, the so-called " Victorian Bride," appeared that the white garments were justified by facts. Also, why did they not dare to give the " Moyen Age Bride " a mediaeval dress ? She was completely modem. Let me assure Mr. Reynolds that he need oot have been afraid—mediaeval clothes were very beautifuL On the whole, however, if we can, as I can in this instance, forgive the complete absence of literary merit (except in the tiny scene in the show-shop in which Mr. Baskcomb gives us the delightful and rather distinguished picture of the tailor who sews revues together),and be content with an extraordinary light-heartedness and glow of colour, The League of Notions is the most amusing show to be seen at the moment. TARN.
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