The Sun.
London, England, 1869-06-22 00:00:00

fIAYHARKE2' THEA7RE.

The production of a new r.nd original domestic
drama by Mr. Tom Taylor would of itself have been
quite sufficient to have insured a crowded audience,
but the additional fact had become public that the
play had been written for Miss Bateman, and that
she would sustain the leading part, last night filled
this elegant and favourite theatre to an over-
flow. The title of the drama is " Mary War-
ner," and we may as well say at once that the
admirable actress has been fitted with a part
that probably will rival in success even that of
" Leah." The author has taken a homely incident
for illustration, and working out the plot he has
cleverly introduced a number of telling yet simple
illustrations of the longsufferinga that virtue for a
time may have to undergo; but which in the end only
tend to show how much a true-hearted woman will
suffer for the object on which sLe has set her pure
and unalterable affection. That Miss Bate= n infused
into such a part the most intense pathos no one can
doubt ; and great as the estimation of her powers
undoubtedly is with the majority of playgoers, those
who had the good fortune and privilege of being
present last night spontaneously bore fresh and
enthusiastic testimony to the truth of her
able acting. The plot of the piece briefly told is as
follows :—George Warner, a young engineer,
clever and talented, becomes greatly dissatis-
fied at the treatment he has received at the
hands of his employers, Messrs. Dutton and
Downes, engineers and contractors, who have on
former occasions immensely benefited by the ingeni-
ous inventions of George without making him a
further reward than a few small gratuities, who is
desirous of emigrating to America, where genius and
brains, he has been told, get better appreciated
than in the old country. Downes, not willing to
lose a good and clever man, but unwilling to
give him the slightest share in the product
of his inventions, refuses him a loan of
£2O, which so enrages George that he
makes use of obs2rvations that induce Downes to
make reference to a cash box, to which George re-
plies that he has, he believes, as good a right to a
portion of the contents as the master. He, how-
ever, quits the office in disgust, and then, without
his knowledge, Mary, his wife, seeks her husband's
employers, in order that she might solicit that aid
which she thinks her husband's high spirit will not
allow him to ask. She likewise is refused, and
whilst engsiged in conversation with the wife of
George, Downes iscalled from the office, from which
he hurries, without locking the drawer containing
the cash box. Mary, having learned from Downes
that George has made the request and received a
refus also quits the place, and then BAs Levitt,
an idle fellow-workman of George's, with a mind
above hard work, and who has been discharged, enters
and carries into execution a plan he has had in con-
templation of robbing the firm. He steals the cash
box and makes off with it, resolving to give George
the £2') he requests to get to g.) to America. The
robbery is discovered, Mary and George Warner are
the suspected parties, and the police are at once put
on the track. Bob, to carry out his intention of
lending George the £2O, calls at his lodging, but,
finding all from home, takes the opportunity of
opening the cash box with George's chisel, and
having wrapped four five-pound notes up in an
American packet list c3nceals the box in George's
room. The police enter, and on their return Mary
and George are told of the robbery, and the strong
suspicion that attach to one or other of them, which
thefinding of the property strongly confirms. George
becomes indignant and dangerous, and Mary,
thinking that her husband has yielded to
temptation, declares that she is the thief.
A trial takes place, Mary is senteucsd to
five years' penal servitude, and George for a time
becomes a broken man to think his Mary
should have degraded herself so vilely. Time
wears on, Mary serves her sentence, and resolv-
ing never to live with her husband more after bis
cruel treatment, she seeks work of the hardest de-
scription, and is compelled to live in a not very re-
spectable neighbourhood. George, in the mean-
time, has become a wealthy man, and in his desire
to relieve the distresses of an almost frantic
woman he gets robbed of his purie::. 'The
police suspect Mary, she is taken into custody,
and the first meeting of husband and wife,
after their five years' separation, is in the
police• court, George sitting on the bench beside the
magistrate, Mary being at the bar. It is shown
that Mary is not the thief, and she is discharged,
but George is driven almost to madness at the dis-
covery of his wife, and takes steps to ascertaia her
retreat. Remoise and drink have driven 130') Levitt
almost mad, and he determines to confess the
robbery. This he does, and then in the last scene,
the drawing-room of the wealthy engineer, George
Warner, Mary his long suffering wife again receives
the deep and devoted love of her husband and child.
Of the acting of Miss Bateman we can only say it was
truth itself. Throughout the play she had carried
the deep sympathies of her audience with her, and
in the last scene, her interview with her child after
an absence of five years, she again touched the
deepest chord of affection, and drew tears from
many, who certainly thought their crying days were
over. Mr. Howe acted with great ability, and
Mr. Compton and Mr. Rogers, the one as
the over officious policeman, and the other the
kind-hearted warder of Brixton prison, each sus-
tained their parts to admiration. Mr. Kendall played
the part of Levitt very well, and Miss C. Hill as
Milly Rigg deserves the highest commendation for
the taste and pathos she infused into the part.
Little Miss White, who appeared as the child of
Mary and George Warner, acted splendidly, and
many a fond mother amongst the audience envied
Miss Bateman the privilege of hugging and kissing
her. The scenery is more than ordinarily good—
the interior of the prison at Brixton, the West-
minster Police Court, and Plum Tree Court, called
forth the loudest applause.
All the principal characters were called for at the
close of the drama. Miss Bateman received quite
an ovation, and Mr. Tom Taylor also had to bow
his acknowledgments for the applause bestowed
upon this his last and, we might almost say, his
best work.

Mr. Buckstone announced that the play would be
repeated on every evening of Miss Bateman's en-
gagement, and in the most confidential and private
manner he informed the audience his benefit was
fixed for the 10th of July—a secret he hoped they
would not fail to keep. Both announcements called
forth the loudest applause, amidst which the popu-
lar manager and favourite actor retired.