We have seen the Boston Stock Company in many amusing and some vastly entertaining productions but until we saw "Mary's Ankle", both figuratively and literally, we never realized that there was in our midst a group of people so bent on convulsing an innocent audience. We came prepared to chuckle and remained to laugh hilariously. Even the orchestra waxed uproarious, and when a weary musician stoops to laughter you may be very sure the play is a "howling" success.
The plot deals with the struggle of three budding young geniuses a doctor a lawyer and a financier to ward off the wolf till their respective ships come in. The first two have never had a client and the tried. Chubb has only ideas And very excellent ideas they turn out to be. For instance, the doctor's ailing landlady, who has let him keep his room because of professional services rendered, brings in her parrot to he cured of some undetermined malady. Chubb thereupon conceives the brilliant stunt of pawning the parrot to buy breakfast for the three. No sooner suggested than acted upon, but, alas, for fond dreams of ham and eggs, a bewilderingly beautiful Red Cross nurse takes the money received to feed the starving Russians. The three hungry men grow desperate, but Chubb comes through with another "idea". All weddings mean a deluge of gifts and Doctor. Hampton has a small army of relatives whose contributions might feed the starving for months. Hence it is up to the doctor to get married, or at least plan on getting married, and invitations are accordingly sent, particularly to one rich uncle, announcing that his nephew is on the road to wedding bells. The presents come, lingerie for the bride, and on top of this the uncle arrives in town to see the bushing wife.
At this particular moment a taxicab, as taxicab will, ran into another and sprained the lady occupant's ankle. Hence Doctor Hampton and Lawyer Stokes each got his first client and the doctor fell in love. She gave her name as Mary Jane Smith from Elizabeth, N. J., and as that was the identical name the three conspirators had picked at random for the wedding invitations the situation can be seen at a glance.
Now, in blows the uncle, and a denouement seems certain; but by a little discreet juggling Mary consents to play the game for a few minutes and the uncle takes her for the new member of the family. He immediately takes the bridal suite for the two on the Bermudan, sailing for the blessed isle of the onion, lily and bottled goods that evening. Things grow more and more strained, not to say tense, but the play goes on till a general showdown occurs on the deck of the ship and Mary decides that doctors aren't so bad; while her aunt discovers in the uncle a long lost lover.
"We might say nere Q. E. D." except that it is absolutely necessary to applaud the work of the several players responsible for the undeniable success of the performance. We lack superlatives and they are dangerous things to fool with, but it is not too much to say that most of the parts could not have been better done. Our old friend Bernard Yedell was perfect as the doctor, and Houston Richards was inimitable as the idea-istic Chub. Miss Hitz., the owner of the "ankle", was at her best, though with not much to do, and Uncle George from Fargo was typical of what most of us think a middle western plutocrat should be
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