On Approval." By Frederick Lonsdale. At the Strand Theatre.
Mn. LoNsnALE puts four impossible people in an improbable situation and hopes for the best. And the best, or something very like it, is forthcoming. There is no action ; the characterization is only skin-deep. But wit—a wit closely allied to pure nonsense—is abundant, and it is cloaked in a graceful style. We do not ask, in these cases, for more.
Mrs. Wislack's first husband drank himself to death for the best of reasons—Mrs. Wislack. Even Richard Halton's dog-like adoration of this formidable relict is sorely tried by three weeks alone with her in Scotland, whither she has taken him on approval. Not less severe has been the test imposed on the young heiress's passion for the Duke of Bristol, for they are also of the party, and His Grace's monstrous selfishness emerges all too clearly under a roof deserted by the domestic staff. Snow falls with an abandon not usual in September, and when in the last act Richard and the heiress follow, in the only car, the example of Mrs. Wislack's servants, we contemplate with a fearful pity the fate of their hostess and her one remaining guest, who must endure each other's loathed society until it thaws.
Pure nonsense does not date, and it is the more extravagant passages of this revival which win the most applause. The Duke of Bristol—insolent, worthless and engaging—is once more in the hands of Mr. Ronald Squire, who acts the part inimitably. Mr. Athole Stewart makes the most of Richard Halton, and Miss Agatha Carroll gives an intelligent but uneven performance as the heiress, endowed by Mr. Lonsdale ith an intermittent humanity, so that at times she appears an intruder in Cockaigne. As Mrs. Wislack, Miss Isabel Jeans lacks the lightness of touch which should blind us to all save the 'ludicrous aspects of the woman's grosser faults.
PETER FLEMING.
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