But for the performance of Mr. Clive in the title role. "Uncle Anyhow"; the comedy by Alfred Sutro at the Copley Theatre this week, is hardly worth the attention of the Boston public. The other members of the cast offer sincere and finished portrayals of the lesser parts, a comment scarcely necessary in a discussion of the Copley Players, but the play itself is an inconsequential thing. Mr. Clive is so delightful, however, that he not only saves the piece from mediocrity but even makes it rank as one of the most enjoyable offerings of the winter at the Copley.

He is cast as a mild-mannered don from Oxford, who "used to be a philosopher but has retired now". He becomes interested in the family of an impecunious inventor who has spent his whole life working on ideas which the conservative British government brands impractical or over-ambitious. The inventor's older daughter takes to the chorus and the younger to the teaching of dancing in an eternally losing struggle to make both ends meet. "Tiny", the dancing teacher, falls in love with a wealthy but quite useless young man, whose parents-firmly forbid the match. Here the lovable "Uncle Anyhow" steps in to fix things up, which he does for everyone, including himself. The scene in which he haltingly proposes marriage--"an absurd suggestion, I know"--to the older daughter, "Rude Min" of the chorus, is in itself, as the sideshow barkers put it, worth the price of admission.

An Inventor That Doesn't Invent

Mr. Hulse makes the old inventor, the only stage inventor in our memory who doesn't succeed in inventing anything, a pathetic figure. Mr. Compton, as a henpecked husband, Mr. Mowbray, as a Cockney toymaker, and Miss Currier, as a slovenly housemaid, all offer distinctive bits. Miss Standing is an able foil for Mr. Clive. Miss Ediss is several shades too cheerful to be real in face of adverse circumstances. Mr. Tonge as the prospective young bridegroom seems scarcely worth fighting for