The Crimson Playgoer

While this play offers nothing unusual or starting, yet is it dished up in a manner novel enough to make it attractive to the casual playgoer. In the familiar situation of a family with a tradition whose son falls for the peroxide rinse adventuress, we have a large assortment of old comic standbys, prominent among whom is the crusader for unrepressed sex, the avid reader of Havelock Ellis.

Not only must the son be gently but firmly extracted from his unfortunate affair, but the mother wishes to marry herself to an old flame, now become a distinguished musician. Both ends are realized, and her majesty the widow emerges triumphant from a strenuous week-end of genuinely amusing situations.

The age old theme of this comedy is well supported by the cast. Laurette Bullivant as the jilted flancee produces an excellent burlesque of Ophelia, "Whiskey, that's for forgetfulness!" Grayce Hampton, the maid who has lived with the family so long that she now runs it, gestures agreeably the more so when she is drunk. Miss Frederick, her majesty, handles her role with great sophistication and taste, and with scarcely a single let-down. The other support is adequate.

A play of well known type containing well known characters, this carries nevertheless, a mantle of freshness. Old stuff, this, but it clicks.