STAGE AND SCREEN
THE THEATRE
"Women of Property." By Hella Wuolijoki." Adapted from the Finnish by Frank Davison. At the Queen's Theatre.
THE Masters of Niskavuori, the country estate in Finland where the action of this eloquent and rather dispiriting play
takes place, have apparently always made it a point of policy to marry rich wives. The fortunes of these patient women have served to sustain and enlarge the estate, while the men have devoted their powers to drinking and supplying the neighbour- hood with illegitimate children, until in middle-age they have rewarded their wives' patience by returning to remain until their deaths at home. This play deals with the crisis which occurs at Niskavuori when the present Master falls in love with a pretty school teacher and shows signs of breaking with the tradition of disinterested adultery and leaving his wife. Ilona is gay, good-looking, and courageous ; his wife dowdy, querulous and spiteful, but she is rich and Arne is a sympathetic but not a strong character. Arne's mother, who presides within Niskavuori with matriarchal spirit, dislikes Arne's wife but puts Niskavuori before her son's chance of happiness. These four characters are well drawn, and their conflicting interests and idealisms are made real and vivid ; utat the theme of Arne's perplexities is worked out against a background of parochial values, largely incomprehensible and nearly always uninteresting to an English audience, detracts from but does not destroy the play's effect.
Mr. Henry Cass's production was unadventurous, and Miss Mary Morris's study of the matriarch was decorative rather than dynamic. But the performances in the other leading parts are good. Mr. Griffith Jones captures our sympathy for Arne at his first appearance, and establishes his character so persuasively that sympathy does not lapse even when the character itself ceases to be potentially heroic and becomes no more than pathetic. Miss Dorice Fordred's study of Arne's unloved wife was cleverly conceived, and the school teacher was played with fire and subtlety by Miss Nancy Hornsby. There were several good performances in the smaller parts, the best a lightning sketch of a slut by Miss Jean Shepeard. Mr. Peter Goffm's excellent decor deserves more than a word of praise. Altogether this is one of the few theatrical productions now in London that one can assert
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