Margaret ‘Madge’ Metcalfe and Arthur Jefferson were followed into music hall by their son, Stan Laurel, born Arthur Stanley Jefferson in 1890.
In the play which is being presented this week at the Queen’s Theatre there is more than the average amount of sensationalism. Much of the “realism” is of a not very dreadful, if inartistic, kind – there are real ducks, pigeons, rabbits, hares, and that sort of thing, – but one passage is so blood–curdling that it has been deemed necessary to place a foot–note on the playbills warning persons of a highly sensitive or nervous temperament not to witness it.
In the scene in which this “intensely thrilling realism” occurs a maniac’s cell is represented, and at the instigation of the villain of the play one of the suffering heroines is in imminent danger of being killed by the “maniac’s knife.” A good deal of labour appears to have been bestowed on this piece of machinery, for we read that it has been registered; also that it was invented by one person and perfected under the personal supervision of another.
In other respects the drama moves on familiar lines. An unscrupulous man and a still more unscrupulous woman are occupied from the opening to the closing of the piece in ruthlessly cheating and persecuting a virtuous hero and his wife. The evil influence is constantly checkmated, and in the end virtue is more than conqueror and villainy meets with its appropriate punishment.
Mr. Felix Edwardes plays the part of the villain, and plays it very well – the cries of execration which he evokes from some of his audience bear witness to his success. Miss Madge Metcalfe (Mrs. Arthur Jefferson) in the ungrateful part of the adventuress, Cora Cassillis, was not less successful. Mr. Villiers Stanley, as the persecuted man, and Miss Marie Stoddart, as the long–suffering and devoted wife, won the good opinions of the audience.
But the honours of the evening were taken by Mr. Arthur Jefferson, the author of the drama, in the character of Sammy Carrot, described as “an oddity.” Mr. Jefferson was well seconded in his efforts to amuse by Miss Lilly Winter as Sally Jenkins, an honest light–hearted country girl who is in love with Sammy. The performance, taken as a whole, was more than ordinarily successful.
