Mr. P-n-ro (making up after the portrait of Ibsen). "Ah! I think I'm getting uncommonly like him."
Mr. Pinero is temporarily Ibsenised. "What will become of them?" should have been the sub-title, if not the single title, of his new play at the "C. C. C.," or Comyns Carr's Comedy Theatre. Instead of "What will become of them?" Mr. Pinero calls it The Benefit of the Doubt, which is supposed to be a quotation from the Judge's summing up in the Divorce Court in the case of Allingham v. Allingham. Mrs. Allingham has sued for a divorce in consequence of her husband's misconduct with Mrs. Fraser; the misconduct was not proved, but the Judge was so severe on the conduct of Mrs. Fraser that there is for her, as far as her husband, friends, family, and Society generally are concerned, no benefit whatever to be obtained from the existence of the doubt in question. Such is the cheerful subject Mr. Pinero, in Ibsenitish vein, has chosen, and he has written a series of dramatic scenes artistically developing his characters by the most natural dialogue possible, but not, as it seems to me, by means either most natural, or most probable. The great situation of the piece is brought about by a gentleman (in the best sense of the word, as far as we can judge up to this point) permitting his infernally jealous wife—there is no other epithet for her except "infernally"—to conceal herself on purpose to overhear a conversation between himself and her supposed rival! Analogous situations in broad farce and farcical comedy are frequent and permissible: but surely not in a drama of real life. But then, I remind me, that this drama is Ibsenitish; which does make a difference.
The play is far too long, but it is admirably written and admirably acted. The dramatist intends most of his leading characters to be repulsively sordid, vulgar, and selfish, and those who are not so are amiable, but weak. The first heroine, perfectly played by Miss Winifrid Emery, is a fast member of a fast family as badly brought up as La famille Benoîton, the vain, frivolous mother being well portrayed by Miss Lindley; and the second heroine, admirably represented by Miss Lily Hanbury, is simply an odious, jealous shrew, and the prospect of happiness in a "place unmentionable to ears polite" would be more probable than any happiness for a husband with a wife like this. With neither heroine is sympathy possible. Another splendid comedy performance is that of Miss Rose Leclercq, as the Bishop's wife, a character whose original is to be found in Anthony Trollope's Barchester Towers, from which I will quote a specimen passage, and ask those who have seen The Benefit of the Doubt whether it does not sum up in brief Mr. Pinero's characters of Mrs. Cloys and her husband the Bishop:—
"What did you say about it, Bishop?" asks Mrs. Proudie of her husband.
"Why," replies "her little man," "I said that I thought that if, that is, should I—should the dean die—that is, I said I thought——" As he went on stammering and floundering, he saw that his wife's eye was fixed sternly on him.
"Bedad then, 'tis Misther Shawn Allingham!"
And these, with the stage directions, are the Right Rev. Dr. Cloys and Mrs. Cloys of "St. Olpherts," and not of "Barchester"—that's all. And this Mrs. Proudie-Cloys serves as a Dea ex machinâ coming forward to offer temporary relief to the hard, austere husband Mr. Fraser (also a good performance by Mr. J. G. Grahame), from his very trying wife. The Bishop is, oddly enough, a mere "lay" figure; and is "left till called for" at the last moment.
Having already said that the acting all round is of first-class quality, it will be superfluous to single out Mr. Leonard Boyne for special praise. Yet he deserves it. Had the author given this character an Irish title, the combination would have been perfect. Mr. Cyril Maude, as the fussy, empty-headed M.P., adds another finished picture to his eccentric portraitures; but Mr. Pinero might have refrained from adding to this personage's eccentricities one which originated with Mr. Charles Wyndham's Headless Man, whose system of memoria technica, and recalling things by initial letters, Mr. Pinero seems to have borrowed, in order to complete Sir Fletcher Portwood's equipment for the stage. It is as well to note this, lest by unconscious cerebration Mr. Pinero should, in some future piece, develope Sir Fletcher into another Mr. Hedley, and refer to Sir Fletcher in this piece as his original.
The only pleasant scene is where, in the Second Act, two club "pals," Denzil Shafto (Mr. J. W. Pigott) and Peter Elphick (Mr. Stuart Champion) appear, the latter with a banjo; both coming to cheer up their unhappy friend Misther Allingham. These two lighten up the gloom of the Second Act for a brief space, and then are heard no more; yet the scene in which they strut their short ten minutes on the stage is one of the best imagined, and best stage-managed as regards "business," in a piece where every detail has been considered and not a point lost. For acting, for dialogue, for character (granting these to be what the author of their being has made them), this unpleasant play ranks with the best of the dramas from, what Mrs. Malaprop might term, "The Pinerian spring." And the end? Nothing; a blank. The audience look at one another and say, "Well—and then?... What next?" It is a highly-finished play without a finish. It belongs to the new order of dramas classified under the heading of the "The Problem Play." Whether these will pay, or not, is another problem of which the author and manager may find a satisfactory solution.