"PLEASE HELP EMILY."
The date at which _Emily_ needed so much assistance was clearly _ante
bellum_, for there is no mention of hostilities, no gun-fire is heard
from the direction of Westende, and Belgium is still bathing. But it
must have been only just before the War, for the emancipation which the
female sex here enjoys is marked by an extreme modernity. A decade or
two ago we might have been shocked at the spectacle of a young lady
turning up at a bachelor's flat at 9 A.M. on a Sunday in a ball-frock,
after a night out at a dancing-club. Lately we have learnt to bear such
escapades without flinching. But it was not so with _Emily's_ guardian,
_Sir Samuel Lethbridge_, very Victorian in his stuffy prejudice in
favour of the decencies; and it was necessary to put him off with a tale
of her sudden departure to Brussels to render first aid to an aunt
stricken with mumps. In order to give colour to this fabrication _Emily_
urges _Dick Trotter_, the bachelor of the flat (as soon as he returns
from his own night out), to conduct her to the alleged invalid. He
consents, but not without protest, for he is a _roué_ of the old school
and cannot approve of these platonic adventures; besides, he is about to
_se ranger_ by marriage with somebody else and (a matter of detail, but
most inconvenient) is under contract to take her to Brighton for the
day.
A fairly preposterous start, you will say; yet the delightful
naturalness which Miss GLADYS COOPER and Mr. CHARLES HAWTREY bring to
the situation gives it almost an air of possibility. But, once we are at
Ostend, and have been introduced to _Trotter's_ incredibly inappropriate
fiancée (she is a niece of the same aunt and has followed under
protection of a tame escort), we are prepared to launch freely and
fearlessly into the rough and tumble of farce.
It is in vain that Miss GLADYS COOPER, over her _petit déjeuner_,
preserves a natural demeanour, even to the point of talking with her
mouth full; the light humour of the First Act declines to the verge of
buffoonery. The devastating confusions which ensue in the matter of
identity and relationship (in our author's Ostend you assume, till
corrected, that all couples are married); the intervention of the local
gendarmerie, headed by a British detective; the arrest of half the party
(including the aunt, arrived in perfect health and ignorance _en route_
for England) on a nameless charge in connection with _Emily's_ suspected
abduction--all this is in the best Criterion manner.
[Illustration: EMILY GIVES DICK THE GLADYS EYE.
_Richard Trotter_ Mr. CHARLES HAWTREY.
_Emily Delmar_ Miss GLADYS COOPER.]
In the Third Act, though we never recover the rapture of the First, the
humour touches a higher level; but what it gains in _finesse_ it loses
in spontaneity. Here we meet _Emily's_ father, returned from lecturing
in the States on social ethics. The scandal of his daughter's conduct
leaves him indifferent, for a long and varied experience of the morals
of many lands, in the course of which he has married as many as eighteen
wives, having made a point of adopting for the time being the
system--polygamous or other--of the country in which he happens to find
himself, has taught him that nothing is right or wrong except as local
opinion makes it so. We are allowed to gather that heredity may have had
some influence in the moulding of _Emily's_ character; and if we may
hope for its continuance into the next generation there seems every
prospect that the children she may bear to _Trotter_ (now released from
_Julia_ and free to marry the right woman) will not have their
development hampered by excess of prudery.
Mr. CHARLES HAWTREY as _Trotter_ played with his old easy skill and
seemed to take a more than usual interest in the play. He was supported
(as they say) by a particularly brilliant cast, including Miss LOTTIE
VENNE as the aunt, Mr. ERIC LEWIS as _Emily's_ father, Mr. FREDERICK
KERR as _Sir Samuel_, Miss HELEN HAYE in the thankless part of _Julia_,
and Mr. NIGEL PLAYFAIR as a self-effacing phantom of a lover. All were
in great form; but, next to Miss GLADYS COOPER, whose natural charm and
ingenuous _espièglerie_ were a perpetual delight, I offer my profoundest
compliments to the short but extraordinarily clever performance of Mr.
H. R. HIGNETT as _Trotter's_ man _Francis_. This is the day of stage
valets, but he was an exceptional treasure. To a quiet taste for
philosophy he added an infinite tact; and by the lies which he poured
into the telephone to cover his master's breach of engagement to _Julia_
he moved _Emily_, herself a gifted artist, to admiration.
The author, Mr. H. M. HARWOOD, must be congratulated on a farce that at
its best was really excellent fun. And he may take it for flattery, if
he likes, when I say that a good deal of his dialogue might be adapted
into the French without offending our gallant Allies on the ground of a
too insular squeamishness. O. S.
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