"WILD GEESE."
[Illustration: _Mr. JACK BUCHANAN_ (_Hon. Bill Malcolm_). "WHAT'S THE IDEA?
ARE YOU BY ANY CHANCE TRYING TO GIVE ME THE COLD SHOULDER?"
_Miss PHYLLIS MONKMAN_ (_Violet Braid_). "NO. I JUST KEEP ON DOING THIS FOR
THE LOOK OF THE THING."]
I should hesitate to accuse Mr. RONALD JEANS of originality in the design
of his musical trifle at the Comedy. The idea of a company of women that
bans the society of men is at least as old as the Attic stage. But it is to
his credit that though the theme invited suggestiveness he at least avoided
the licence of _The Lysistrata_. Indeed there were moments when his
restraint filled me with respectful wonder. Thus, though the Pacific Island
to which the Junior Jumper Club retired--with no male attendant but the
Club porter--clearly indicated a bathing scene, yet we had to be satisfied
with an occasional glimpse of an exiguous _maillot_ with nobody inside it.
In fact, the fun throughout had a note of reserve and was never boisterous.
Mr. JACK BUCHANAN'S quiet methods in the part of the _Hon. Bill Malcolm_,
universal philanderer, lent themselves to this quality of understatement.
In a scene where he tried to extricate himself from a number of coincident
entanglements with various members of the Club he was quite amusing without
the aid of italics. Mr. GILBERT CHILDS, again, as _Weekes_--Club porter and
_Admirable Crichton_ of the island--though a little broader in his style,
was too clever to force the fun.
The other sex, as was natural with women who affected a serious purpose,
had fewer chances, and Miss PHYLLIS MONKMAN spoilt hers by a bad trick of
hunching her shoulders and waggling her arms as if she were out for a
cake-walk on Montmartre.
There were touches of humour in Mr. CUVILLIER'S tuneful music and in the
limited movements of the best-looking chorus that I have seen for a long
time.
As for the plot, it had at least the merit of continuity and conformed to
the logic, seldom too severe, of this kind of entertainment, as distinct
from the so-called _revue_. Nearly everything was well within my
intelligence, the chief exception being the title; for never surely did a
wild-goose chase offer such easy sport. The birds were just asking to be
put into the bag. I should myself have preferred, out of compliment to the
chorus, to call the play "Wild Ducks," only, of course, IBSEN had been
there before. Not that this would have greatly troubled an author who
showed so little regard for the proprietary rights of ARISTOPHANES and Sir
JAMES BARRIE.