Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Monday 23 December 1912, page 3


I "THE MONK AND THE I WOMAN."

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"The Monk and the Woman," a romantic melodrama by Frederick Melville,, dealing

with mediaeval France, forms the Christmas I

attraction at the Adelphi Theatre, where the new play was successfully produced on Saturday. The author has taken some trouble In the earlier scenes to secure the atmosphere of the period, and there is some wellwritten dialogue, but the latter half of the drama is crowded with improbabilities. However, as these excited a great deal of applause. it is to be presumed that the crowded audience was pleased to And itself on familiar ground. At the end, where the hero and heroine were in danger of extermination, and had In fact, retreated up a staircase before the swords of the enemy, the Chateau of St. Claire was suddenly destroyed by an earthquake. The whole of the palatial Interior, with its hangings, marble columns, hand-painted ceilings, fell into pieces, and the open country was revealed, with a volcano spouting flames and red hot cinders, and the happy pair 011 their little eminence alone saved amongst all who had crowded the animated scene. This clever spectacular effect was heartily cheered, and the curtain was raised half a dozen times in response to the applause. Mr. George Willoughby, a very experienced actor-manager, produced the new piece for George Marlow, Ltd., and much of the success was due to his judgment in bringing in new artists to strengthen the combina-tion, namely, Messrs. Gerald Kay Souper, Richard Bellairs, and T. W. Lloyd, all of whom were effectively placed.

The story is one of conflict between the Cloister and the Court. The curtain rises upon the first of several picturesque tableaux painted by Mr. J. S. Mann, showing the refectory of an old French monastery, with gracefullygroined roof and stone flagged floor, where the brethren at their joints and pasties out of pewter dishes at stoutly timbered tables. The brothers file In In their cassocks and hempen girdles full of gossip about Brother John (a lovable young monk as portrayed by Mr. Bellairs), who has been ordered six days' cells on bread and water for speaking to a woman. The general opinion is that John is bewitched by unholy spells. Peter, the pnunch-bcllled glasson of the establishment, a harmless, good-hearted joker with red hair, depicted with unctuous humour by Mr. Frank Crossley, exclaims By St. Paul, this womanmalady is a dangerous complaint." This was the first of many similar sentiments which the holiday audience greeted with shouts of laugh-ter. It seems that Liane, the Pearl of the Court, with her friend Vernet (the latter character acceptably played by Miss Pearl Smith have fled to the monastery, where they are pursued by Prince Henri do Montrale, with orders from the King to recapture them at all costs. The libertine King is anxious to secure Llano for himself, as a preliminary to which the youthful beauty is to be forced into a marriage with Henri, whom she does not fear as a companion but dislikes as a husband. Henry takes possession of the monastery with an armed guard, overawed the monks, and before returning to the capital, leaves Llano in the custody of the venerable prior, Father Ignatius, a character with insufficient colour, which Mr. C. R. Stanford (stage-manager) plays with artistic care, though unable to make much of it. The prior hands the key of her cell to the steadiest young monk he knows, Brother Paul, who falls in love with the royal ward In ten minutes!

The first act is practically comedy, and includes a vivacious scene showing the woman's wiles of Liane in her attempt to subdue and take to herself her handsome, innocent gaoler. Those love passages, with Paul's anguished determination to resist the coquette, were capitally shown by Mr. George Cross and Miss Nellie Bramley the latter an attractive young actress with a speaking voice of round and tuneful quality. Mr. Cross was at his best in the scene where Paul is' haled before the King, seated beneath a canopy of purple and gold in a beautiful Interior, and Is challenged as to the witchcraft by which he has won Line to love him. Before that point the actor had chiefly shown Paul's deep sorrow and devotion at his new destiny In regard to Lane God sent you into my life. God keep you there for ever but in his fearless analysis of the King's character he impressively assumed a more dramatic manner. The King, enraged at Paul'S audacity, orders his minions to search for and destroy his wizard's charm, and whilst they do this the guard prepare to fire their barque buses. But only the symbol of salvation hangs round his neck, and the curtain falls upon the triumphant ex-clamation of Llano They dare not fire upon

the Cross."

Mr. Kay Couper makes a hit in the new piece by his elaborately studied representation of the Kin- as a handsome, engaging, ' witty, easily ruffled tyrant, graceful In every movement, and dazzling in the richest apparel of the period. Mr. T. W. Lloyd played with weight and aplomb as the swashbuckling Henri, worsted in his repeated duels with the monk (swords against quarter-staff), and eventually outwitted by the hero, who appro-priate his beaver and cloak, and is married to Llano in the royal chapel before the King discovers the trick. Amongst the other characters Miss Nellie Ferguson conveyed the idea of melancholy appropriate to the unhappy, faded, discarded favourite who is murdered by her attempt to warn the King of Prince Henry's conspiracy; Miss Beth Murdoch showed genuine promise as the fairhaired girl in love with Brother John; Miss Margaret Linden was handsome and volatile as the Comtesse de Sales; and Mr. Arthur Shirley appeared as the braggart Captain Ar-

made.

There will be a matinee on Thursday.