STAGE AND SCREEN
"Lady Precious Stream." By S. I. Hsiung. At the Little IT is curious how In the face of a play may be altered
in exportation. In China the original of this entertainment is a stock theatrical piece, and it is not considered as literature : in this country the critics have been at pains to insist upon its literary qualities, while remaining evasive about the nature of its dramatic effect. With all deference to the talents of Mr. Hsiung (which are no doubt responsible for the greater part of the attractiveness of this version), the Chinese verdict is surely the correct one. The methods and effects of this play are those of a fairy-story, and the qualities of a fairy-story, despite the present vogue for the primitive, cannot properly be considered as literary qualities. Indeed the more stripped a play is of literary pretension, and the more it relies on the crude elements of drama, the more it approximates to the mode of the fairy-story. This play depends for its effect upon being received in this way (the " Honourable Reader who unfolds each scene in advance prepares the audience to accept it so) and upon the mimetic abilities of the actors, which fortunately for it are considerable. As literature it is no more than pictur- esque.
The play opens on the garden of His Excellency Wang Yun, the Prime Minister, who appears " wearing a long black beard which indicates that he is not the villain." After his chair and cushions have been arranged for him by the property-men (who when not rushing in to retrieve their effects sit throughout the play on the edge of the stage unin- terruptedly smoking), he presents his credentials to the audience : " I am your humble servant, Wang Yun, the Prime Minister of the Emperor's Court. My consort's name is Chen. Although we have been happily married for twenty years, we are still childless. . . ." In spite of being childless, he goes on to explain, he has three daughters, and one of them —the Lady Precious Stream—is the cause of the family- council which he proceeds to call. Precious Stream, although the most beautiful and gifted of his daughters, is still unmarried, and it is her father's intention that she shall remedy this without delay. Precious Stream submits to his plan, but in place of the eligible young men whom her father proposes succeeds in attaching herself to the handsome and brilliant gardener, Hsieh Ping-Kuei. She leaves her father's house to be his wife under a parental cloud.
The second act shows us their residence—a cave—a month later. After only six weeks- of married life Hsieh Ping-Kuei is compelled to leave her to take part in a war against the Western Regions, a fabulous land where hair is red and eyes green; and Precious Stream has no news of him for eighteen years. In the third act we are transported to the Western Regions, where we run Hsieh Ping-Kuei to earth. We find that he has been a success as a militarist, and that with the aid of the local Princess he has managed to establish himself as King. His fortune, however, has its darker side, as he proceeds to explain : the Princess " wished to marry me, an unusual proposal which I could not possibly refuse. Postponing it again and again, I have at last been obliged to promise to marry her after my coronation. . . . I have been vainly trying to explain to her that I am already married, but I can't bear to break her heart. What am Ito do ? " What he does is to fly back home, on the way explaining the situation to the pursuing Princess, who generously lends her troops to swell his triumph. The ending brings appropriate happiness to everyone who deserves it.
I do not know for how long it is intended to retain this play at the Little Theatre, but if it is to last over Christmas it should provide intelligent children with an unusual alterna- tive to the pantomime. It will also commend itself to those of their parents who demand from the theatre no more than a fairy-story in dramatic form, without any qualities more substantial than charm and grace. The acting is throughout extremely accomplished, with performances of conspicuous merit by Mr. Esme Percy, Miss Louise Hampton,
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