The cast: There is nothing startling about the Dramatic Club's first production of the season, except its contrast to the sort of thing that was being presented a year ago at this time. From unruly Mexico, the Club has shifted to the most polite drawing-room atmosphere of proper England. Of course, A. A. Milne is much too successful in juvenile writing to let slip an opportunity like the Barrie-Kipling dream scene in which the appearance of a Nite, a Squier, and a Buteus Maiden would do any child's heart good. The adult portions of the play are composed of slightly bored dialogue in Act I, a not too effective suggestion of strain in the first scene of Act III, and, in the final scene, a modicum of action that moves to the weak-kneed close. With this sort of material the Club did very acceptably. It would be quibbing to find fault with the work of Mr. Wallstein, whose characterization of a prosperous M. P. who loses for a day his carefully attained sense of value, is very finely done. Miss Hill and Miss Crocker, in the leading feminine roles, have little acting to do, but do it gracefully. Mr. Jackson and Mr. Joyce portray satisfactorily the spineless characters they represent; Mr. Meyer is more successful, in a more positive part. The direction and staging are at a safe distance from the amateurish. The Mannock library, thrice appearing looks as it should, like the room of a political and unliterary owner. The dream scene in Act II is presented in a properly confused manner, and the nook mid sunny spots of greenery, where the Rt. Hon. Selby Mannock grows romantic, beyond doubt is the sort of place where that sort of man would do precisely that.
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FOR INVETERATE VAGABONDS
