"OUTCAST."
It is very fresh and delightful of Mr. H. H. DAVIES to regard seriously
the love of a man for a maid. North of the river and west of Temple Bar
it is the intrigues of the highly compromised middle-aged which are
supposed to be most worthy of attention on the stage. But Mr. DAVIES
(luckily) is never afraid of being young. So he starts us off with a
picture of _Geoffrey_ in the clutches of drink and drugs just because
_Valentine_ has jilted him. True that when _Valentine_ is finally
married to another man _Geoffrey_ is still in love with her, and
receives her at midnight in his rooms; but by this time Mr. DAVIES has
given us three excellent Acts in his own best manner.
And these Acts are hardly concerned with the love of _Geoffrey_ for
_Valentine_ at all, but with the relations between _Geoffrey_ and
_Miriam_, a woman of the town. She is, like _Geoffrey_, an outcast; but
she has all the good qualities which he lacks, and she is brave and
loving enough to drag him from the pit into which he was sinking. He
rewards her by chasing after _Valentine_ again (now tired of her
husband)--and also by getting Mr. DAVIES, as I thought, a little way out
of his element.
The solution of this less common triangle--man, mistress, other man's
wife--I must leave to the author to reveal to you. Meanwhile I thank him
for an absorbing play, in which the two chief characters were extremely
well worked out. Perfectly played by Mr. GERALD DU MAURIER and Miss
ETHEL LEVEY, they were two very human people.
By the way, in one respect _Outcast_ must easily break all records.
Never have so many stage cigarettes been lit (and thrown away) in the
course of an evening. I wish that somebody who reads this and is tempted
to pay a visit to Wyndham's would let me know the full number. I began
counting too late.