The Express.
London, England, 1852-04-13 00:00:00

LYCEUM._

The French were the first of civilised peoples to
discover that sins against the dramatic " unities" could be
committed outside as well as inside the mysteriously inexo-
rable five acts ; and of late years the rage for panoramic
dramas, following the rage for novels in fifty volumes, has
reached such a height at Paris that Dumu actually put
together • piece which it took two nights to play—there
being even at one time danger that the theatre, living on
one author and one work per year, would become cloud
to all who could not afford to pay down for a season ticket,
and devote a life to an exciting race after the elucidation of a
single plot. We have not seen much of these dramatic mazes
on the London stage ; and the production of a Chain of
Events at the Lyceum last night—the bills announcing " a
dramatic story in eight acts, occupying the whole evening"
—may therefore be regarded as an experiment updh British
patience. In another sense, such a piece was an experi-
ment u a test whether Mr. Mathews is not sagaciously bold
iu facing an Easter without the routine and somewhat
wern-out " Easter piece."
The Chain of Events is an adaptation from a play re-
cently popular in Paris--" Les Dames de It Halle"—im-
mense in length, teasingly intricate in plot, abounding in
" situations" undoubtedly striking, but grossly unnatural—
crowded with pe►aonm, but destitute of charac-
ters —in • word a thoroughly French piece,
skilfully constructed and certain of success, if only as a
rapid spectacle. It was just the piece fur the Lyceum;
first, because it gave illimitable opportunity for the creation
of the stage-pictures, of scenery and costume, for the exhibi-
tion of which every theatre under the management otH
Madame Vestris has at once become famous; and, secondly,
because it possessed a part which might have been written I
at Mr. Charles Mathews. It is, therefore, hardly necessary
to say that the Chain of Erentil was a euecess—a success
despite some decided deficiencies which by no means escaped
the observation of an audience throughout suspicious
—and that a " run " is secured. In one respect, indeed,
the Lyceum is not without its Easter piece; for as with its
other pieces dated from Easter, the populcrity of the present
one will be referred to the splendour of the scenery and of
the setting.
A plot that takes eight acts to unfold itself will necessarily
read tedious in a description ; but wo will be as brief as we
can in stating the circuitous story. The first act (and each
act it should be understood is • single scene) occurs in a
street in Paris—elaborately Parisian in the painting.
On one side of the stage is the house of a Marquis
of Melly, and on the other side the bumbler
dwelling of Pcro Bonnexu (Mr. Frank Matthews).
a water carrier ; and the whole play, it turns out, rests
upon the fortunes of these two houses, the Melcys and the
Bo:meatus. There is a plunge at once in medial res. The
Marquis at the outset is in the Bastille ter a political of-
fence, and his papers in his house are uuder the seals of the
police. The Marquis has a father, the Duke de Melcy, re-
sident on his estates at St. Domingo, and the son has written
to the father confessing a secret marriage with • lady of in-
ferior birth, and the existence of a son by that marriage,
the heir of the Melcys—'he wife having fur years been
direarded, and the eon, separated from the mother, being
ignorant of his family and his rights. These pre:irainarica
being communicated ip the stage way to the audience, the
business begins. First comes Oitspard L'A v ise (Mr. Charles
Mathews). Ile is a scamp of the school of French scamps—
a wit, au adventurer, and a liend—is composition of the
elements of a Talleyrand, ejtobert Maeaire, and a klephis-
tophiles. Re has reached France firm St. Domingo. Ile
is aware that the Marquis has written to the Duke about
the humble wife, and the secreted win; and the family
pride of the Duke having been amused, Gaspard has ob-
tallied a sort of commission from him that if he (Gaspard)
zan act hold of the Marquis's will (the Marquis haring
made it, in the belief that his insprisounwnt would be fol-
lowed by his death), by which the son is acknowledged and
the Melcy property bequeathed to him, a reward of 10,900