The Theatre
[" THE HIGH ROAD BY FREDERICK. LONSDALE• AT THE SHAFTESBURY THEATRE.] FIRST nights of Mr. Frederick Lonsdale's plays take one back to the "wonderful nineties" when first-night audiences knew when to laugh and when to cease their risible noises. Every line from the rise of the curtain received its meed of laughter. The High Road is not as good a play as The Last of Mrs. Cheyney, perhaps, but it is highly entertaining.
The plot is simple. Lord Teylesmore, scion of a ducal house, has fallen in love with an actress, Elsie Hilary (Miss Cicely Byrne), and finding that his father has tried to buy her off with a bribe of 15,000, the boy promptly announces his engagement in the Press. This brings all his agitated relatives together, for a conference.
"Offer her money—buy the girl off," is Lord Trench's advice and the tables are neatly turned when Jim Hilary, father of the actress, breaks in upon the family to explain that he cannot possibly allow his daughter to abandon her career and marry beneath her. He is not a rich man, but if money talks, he is willing to purchase her release.
The upshot of the family conference is that the actress and her father, delightfully played by Mr. Alfred Drayton, are invited to become the guests of Lord Crayle. A month passes during which the young woman transfers her affections to the head of the house, and the Duke of Warrington (Ian Hunter) is just about to break off an old affair when the wireless loud- speaker announces to the assembled company that the husband of the lady in question has inopportunely died, leaving him free to do the right thing and marry a woman of his own class.
The acting is well-nigh perfect. Alfred Drayton captured much of the laughter and shared with Mr. Kerr the honours
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