The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-30 00:00:00

ADELPIII,

The first representation of the new drama en-
titled " Black and White," the joint production of
Mr. Wilkie Collins and Mr. Charles Fechter, was
a genuine and well-deserved triumph. The audi-
ence assembled on the occasion was a highly dis-
tinguished one, embracing, as it did, numbers of
the most distinguished personages both in literature
and art. The play is most artistically constructed,
the writing is particularly beautiful, and, taken as
a whole, a better drama has not been placed upon
the stage for many years. The plot of the piece,
briefly told, is as follows : Miss Milburn,
an heiress, is engaged to be married to
Stephen Westcraft, a rich planter; but she has
been on a visit to Europe, and in Paris has
met a French gentleman, Maurice de Layrac, who
has made a dangerous impression upon her heart.
She believes she has merely been flirting with M.
de Layrac, and in this spirit she has even invited
him to come to Trinidad to her birthday party,
little expecting that he will cross the sea to accept
her invitation. But the French gentleman has pro-
mised that he will do so, and he keeps his word.
Miss Milburn is of course annoyed and delighted at
such devotion, and her indifference to Stephen
Westcraft, which has gradually been increasing,
now becomes even more manifest than before.
Stephen Westcraft on his side, at once sees that he
has a rival in the French gentleman who has so
unexpectedly joined the birthday party. Events
soon arise which give him an opportunity for
revenge. Maurice de Layrac is mysteriously
summoned to the deathbed of a quadroon, Ruth,
who tells him that he is her son, and that he was
born in slavery. Maurice de Layrac was over-
whelmed by this revelation. The owner of the quad-
roon in dying years before has left a document
behind him emancipating Ruth and her child. The
original has been intercepted, but a copy remains,
the place where it is deposited being indicated by
an enigmatical entry in a pocket-book. A room
iu the "old wing" of a dilapidated house which has
been shut up for many years, has to be searched. A
faithful servant of Maurice, David Michaelmas,
goes on this errand. For a long time he is un:un-
cessful. " Six by three," which is almost all the
the clue to the whereabouts of the document, may
be a measurement in yards or feet, may apply to
the floor or to the walls, or to some piece of fur-
niture in the room. Everything that Michaelmas
can think of is measured, at last he thinks of counting
the patterns of the paper on the walls, and beneath
one near the bed on which the old man died, which
is " six by three," the missing letter is found which
produces the freedom of Ruth, the quadroon, and
her son Maurice. Westcraft, the unrelenting vil-
lain of the piece, of course, is thus frustrated, and
the two lovers of course are united. The acting
of Mr. Fechter, as de Layrac, a French
gentleman, was perfection ; nothing could equal
the ease and grace with which he sustained
the part, and then again where the bright
hopes of his life seem destroyed for ever, he
infused into the character a pathos that made the
waters well up to the eyes of many of the stronger
sexpresent, who gladly took advantage of the pocket
handkerchief to hide the tiny drop that would not
be controlled. Miss Leclercq deserves the highest
praise for hervery beautiful embodiment of the part
of Miss Milburn, and Mrs. Leigh Murray as the
quadroon was excellent ; it is certainly one of her
greatest successes. Mr. A. Stirling, as the villain
Westcraft, was
.a little too rough and demonstra-
tive, but yet his was a performance too good
for any great fault to be found with. Mr. Belmore,
Mr Atkins, and Mr Phillips sustained the respective
parts of Plato, Michaelmas, and Wolf very effi-
ciently. In short, the play was well acted in every
particular. The scenery was remarkably good, and
and altogether the piece was mounted with a care
and completeness that showed plainly the author-
actor's directing hand. The applause at the fall of
the curtain was enthusiastic, in fact it became
tumultuous when Mr. Fechter led forward Mr.
Wilkie Collins to bow his acknowledgments. An
extraordinary successful career may safely be pre-
dieted for " Black and White."