ONE-ACT PLAYS OF TO-DAY. Second Series. Edited by J. W.
Marriott. (Harrap. 3s. 6d.) IT must be admitted that the second volume of these selections is far richer in good work than the first, but Mr. Marriott's taste is still bewildering. Miss Olive Conway occasionally,. attains to the level of drawing-room comedy, back drawing- room comedy, but neither Becky Sharp in volume one nor The King's Waistcoat in volume two is generally superior to impromptu charades. Stanley Houghton was a notable figure in his time, but there can be few who want to read in The Dear Departed a stiff dramatization, and perversion, of a famous short story. As affording Miss Hilda Trevelyan with one of her best parts, 'Op o' Me Thumb has historic interest, but its republication does both of its talented authors considerable injustice. The Child in Flanders is historic, too, because there war sentimentality runs mad. But why bring a blush to the cheek of Miss Cicely Hamilton by republishing it, especially since its main attraction lies in the music and pageantry not here reproduced ? On the other hand, theie are Synge and Lady Gregory at their best ; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's far too little admired Waterloo : a good Allan Monk- house ; The Monkey's Paw, which, however, is better as a short-story and a film than a play ; a delightfUlly artificial duologue by Mr. Sutro, from which I must quote :-- CROCKSTEAD : . . . but it is a strange thing that I am always called I arrison, and that no one ever adopts the diminutive. ALINE : That does not surprise me ; we have no pet name for the east wind."
And, above all, the Lonesome Like of Arr. Harold Brighouse and the It's The Poor That 'Kips The Poor of the late Iiarold Chapin. Even George Formby, who did for the North what Marie Lloyd did for the South, could not have bettered, though he might have equalled, the fun of Sam Iforrocks, the lad with a tile off. All Lancashire is distilled in Lonesome Like : its comedy, its pathos and its sardonic fun. Lancashire folk are so independent. Sarah Ormerod and Emma Brierley are very good friends, but—they are giving nothing away. They don't want pity ; they want their rights. To Ifs The Poor That 'Flips the Poor no Cockney reviewer can do justice. It is all too true, too terrible.
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