THE THEATRE.
"MIXED MARRIAGE,,' BY ST. JOHN ERVINE, AT THE AMBASSADORS THEATRE.—" ENTER MADAM," BY GILDA VARESI AND DOLLY BYRNE,, AT. THE ROYALTY THEATRE.
Mixed Marriage is the most humanand amusing play at present to be seen in London. It also has the. advantage of being brilliantly acted by Miss Sara Allgood and her company of Irish players. Like.Mr. Galsworthy's Justice it is.a propaganda play, but its object is so remote--nam.ely, that of making human beings more intelligent—that no one would have any suspicion that it was written with any further purpose than that; of:pro- viding a setting wherein the antics of a few ordinary lunatics like ourselves would appear idiotic but amusing, disastrous. but pitiful, brutal but human. It is also of great topical interest and should be played' in every town in Ireland which is embittered by absurd feuds—in short in. every Irish_town—and also trans- lated encl. played, in all those countries in. Europe where men find it difficult- to- get on comfortably with their neighbour% Mr. St. John Ervine is, I believe, a Belfast man and .a Protestant, and he has drawn-the portrait of the Ulsterman and Orangeman, John Rainey, with great insight and sympathy. Rainey is one of those fireside despots. whose strength or stubbornness of character generally ends in disaster for one or more of their children. In his case the home has been so fax saved* from collapse by his wife whose tolerance and- common sense are as remarkable as her husband's obstinacy. The passages between the two are admirably conceived, and the, dialogue is full: of natural, unforced humour. The play centres around Rainey's objection to his son Tom marrying a Catholic girl, and it ends with the death of the girl through Rainey's, obstinacy. The curtain falls on Rainey's final pigheaded, assertion,that he knew he was right—the girl' accidental death when trying to save someone from danger in a mob riot' being, evidently a sign from Providence that it agreed with his ideas about Catholics. One can only echo the familiar :—
" Gott mit uns,' the Germans sing,
And. we retort 'God save the King ' ; -
God this, God that, the nations cry,
Good God ! ' said God, 'whose God am I?"
Mr. Fred O'Donovan gave a fine performance as John Rainey, and, as usual with the Irish players, the minor parts were acted with exceptional finish. Mixed Marriage is preceded by J. MI Synge's Riders to the Sea, and is one of the few plays in London that should on no account be missed.
Enter Madam is a fairly amusing comedy about a. Prima Donna who after a long absence from her husband on professional business returns to. him accompanied by her suite, consisting of her doctor, her secretary, her maid and her cook Arohimede. The contrast with the conventional decorum of her husband and of his friend Mrs. Flora Preston—a respectable widow for whom he is contemplating leaving his wife—is brightly done. The authors succeed in writing an entertaining dinner scene into which the doctor (admirably played by Mr. Francis XL Verdi) and the cook Archimede introduce an aria with a flute obligate. Miss Gilda Varesi suggested with considerable clever- ness the personality of the irresponsible, vain, reckless but charming singer who sets herself to re-engage the affections of her husband and, successfully outwits- her rival. The play is very alight, but Mr. Dennis Eadie as, the husband and, Miss, Gilds Varesi as the Prima Donna succeed in making it yield) 4. an evening's pleasant entertainment;
TURNER.
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