ENTERTAINMENTS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2381, 23 December 1908, Page 4

ENTERTAINMENTS.

HIS MAJESTY’S THEATRE,

DIANA OF DOBSON’S

“Diana of Dobson’s” is a comedydrama without- a dull moment. It is full of wholesome humor, sentiment, and sound logic, and the large audience that filled His Majesty’s Theatre last night thoroughly appreciated the plav. There is a good plot in “Diana of Dobson’s,” but the strongest- feature lies in the author's treatment of sociological questions. The play is, sa it were, a protest against the shopsweating s\*stem of London, where girls are condemned to work like slaves for a few shillings a week audu*’ to observe an arbitrary code of rules laid down by the proprietor of the establishment. ~ Diana is one of Dobson’s shop girls, in such a condition of employment, but a legacy of £3OO brings her temporary independence* and she decides to have a good for a month. She goes to Switzerland, dresses in Paris gowns, stays at the most exclusive hotels and mixes with the ornamental class, “the upper ten.” Even in her time of affluence Diana does not forget that she was a shopgirl, and that when her money is done she will again be a shop girl, ~ t but the £3OO gives her an opportunity to talk plain English to the ornamental classes, and particularly to a large employer of labor who runs a number of concerns by cutting down expenses. However, Diana, during her visit- to Switzerland., falls in love with one of the ornamental class, who has an income of £6OO a- year, but. when he first proposes, she declines the offer. After a- vain attempt to find work in London after her £3OO has been dissipated, she accidentally again meets him on the Thames embankment he is testing in a practical manner her statement that lie is unable to-earn his living, and in the end she marries him. Such, briefly, is the plot., but the play contains more than a plot, it contains an economic and sociological question which is left for the audience to think over, and, if possible, solve, and in that the exceptional cleverness of the comedy lies. Miss Tittell Bruue appeared as Diana Massingberd. the slioxt girl, and gave an interpretation of the part of a girl who hungers for the bettor tilings of the earth, that was instinct- with re alisation and resource. She displayed, W with convincing force, the bitterness engendered by years of slavery and hardship, and the breaking-out of her fettered holies when wealth came within her grasp. Miss Brune’s part afforded her many opportunities, but not one was missed, and she was natural and thorough throughout. Mrs. Brough, who is a favorite everywhere, and especially in Gisborne, gave a finished interpretation of ill’s. Cantelupo. a strictly proper society lady, who desires to marry off a ne’er-do-well nephew. Mr. Thomas Kingston was seen in an entirely new role, that -< of an affected military captain who cannot keep out of debt ou £6OO a year. Mr. Kingston’s part did not give much scope for heavy work, but was more of a character study, and he was inost successful, iliss Emma; Temple was seen in two small parts, that of Mrs. Pringle., the head lady of Dobson’s shop, and’ as an old woman, while ilr. Grogan MacMahon deserves a word of praise for his work as Sir Jabez Grinley, a shoii-keepin g. labor-sweating baronet. The other parts were also well filled. The opening scene of the olay was peculiar in location—the dormitory of the girls employed at Dobson’s, and while the dialogue is proceeding the girls make preliminary preparations to retire for the night, much to the amusement of the audience. The scene is, however, . treated with the utmost delicacy, and there is not even a suggestion of immodesty. The other showed' the sitting room of a hotel in Switzerland with the lake and mountains as a background, and the Thames embankment at midnight. The gowns worn by the ladies were a- distinctive feature" of the mounting, which was %■' perfect in every detail.