"MY AUNT."
Illustration: SHOULD THE TELEPHONE BE USED EXCEPT UNDER MEDICAL
ADVICE?
_Mrs. Martingale_ Miss LOTTIE VENNE.
_Dr. Sweette_ Mr. ERNEST HENDRIE.
***
Really, the only question to ask oneself of this adaptation from the
French is "Is it funny enough?" With so much being offered by the
newsboy outside the Vaudeville that is not at all funny, it would be
pleasant to find inside the doors a little relief from the world.
I will give the authors the benefit of any doubt I may have felt now and
then, and say that _My Aunt_ serves its purpose. In places it made us
all laugh a good deal, and I don't think we were prepared to be easily
amused; although (for a reason which still escapes me) there was a
sudden burst of clapping when _Aubrey Braxton_ announced that he had
received an "ultimatum" from _Suzanne_. The latter part of the Second
Act is particularly well worked up, and one remark of _Aubrey's_ to
_Leslie Tarbolton_ brought down the house. ("You are the sort of man who
would go to call on a sick friend ... and eat his grapes.") The Third
Act is terribly padded with things which are not really funny, but it
gives us an opportunity of seeing a little more of Miss LOTTIE VENNE, to
whom the authors had not previously been generous. (I love Miss VENNE'S
voice and I love her manner of waving her arms in the air. It was
delightful to see and listen to her again.)
For the best parts of the first two Acts, then; for Miss LOTTIE VENNE'S
voice; above all, for Mr. A. W. BASKCOMB'S face, _My Aunt_ is worth
while. As _Aubrey Braxton_ Mr. BASKCOMB--the never-to-be-forgotten
_Slightly_ of so many Christmasses--goes through all the many troubles
of a hero of farce with his own inimitable air of hopeless resignation.
I hope that his efforts will not be unrewarded, and that the management
will find that, without rivalling the success of that other aunt,
Charley's, they will yet for some time be able to play to good "business
as usual."