MR. FIRTH SHEPHERD, who together with Mr. Ian Hay has
devised and invented this imbroglio, gave it out in his first- night speech that the motto of his regime at Princes Theatre is to- be : " You want the best thrills, we have them." It is to be hoped that this policy will not be too rigidly followed. Everything here yields to the maritime collision in Act I and the gushing of the oil well in Act II. Overwhelming as these scenes may be to " boys of all ages," they are meagre fare for a long hot evening. Still, The Gusher is on the whole good fun ; produced on similar lines to The Frog, with the same sepulchral voice booming out the location of each succeeding episode, it deals with a search for buried treasure, from Parkhurst to Polynesia. Little acting is called for, but Messrs.- Ivan Samson and Alastair Sim acquit themselves very nicely, and Mr. Percy Parsons is so furiously sinister that one suspects a heart of gold. As entertainment, the play fails short of The Frog, but then the great Edgar had no hand in it. Cops wha hae wi' Wallace bled do not take easily to witch-doctors and South Sea ballyhoo.
R. H-D. R. H-D.
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