The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-05-04
TERRY'S ACTING
 SAVES THE PLAY
Continued from First Page.)

and MT Shaw is quite prosaic indi- vidual, after all; and prosiness in MT Shaw is intolerable. A withholding Shaw play is salt that has lost it's savor, fit only to be trodden under foot of men. In Captain Brassbound's Conversion" Mr Shaw would have done much better to have left out the technique and left 1t to wit.
 Unlike most of the Shaw comedies, has more or less of plot-a wildly im- probable plot. 1t is true, but still recog- nizable as such. Captain Brassbound is smuggler- -origand of the Morocco coast, born a gentleman, but disappoint- ed in life. His father was a West In dian planter, brother of Sir Howard Hallam, the attorney general of Eng land, who, after the formers death, seems to have cheated the estate out of the plantation, for which 1t Is the ambition of Captain Brassbound, the neutral heir, to have revenge. The plan orens with Sir Howard appearing upon the Morocco coast for no adequate rea- son, with his sister-in-law, Lady Cecily Waynfiete, who wants to go inland to Seq what the country is like. This is Captain Brassbound's chance. He be- trays the party to Sheik Sadl ell Assif, an up-country Christian killer, and the play would have ended right here with the exterrnination of all the chief actors had 1t not been for the inter- vention of an American warship which demands the surrender of the captives. IA terrified Turkish official appears, res- cues the sheik's catch, and turns them over to the Americans, together with the sheik, Brassbound and his gang of snlugglers. At the ensuing trial Lady Cecily turns the American captain trt und her little finger-as she had pre- yiccsly done with everyone else with whom she has come in contact-got the whole miscellany of malefactors off scot-free, sheik, cadi, smugglers and al, silences Sir Towards indignant re- solve to Hay information by playing upon his British aversion to washing of dirty linen in public. and receives assurances of the conversion of Cap tain Brassbound himself, whom she had previously reconciled with his uncle,
 The play is called "Captain Brass bounds Conversion" 1t is true, but a mere expressive caption would appear to be Lady Cecilys Maneuvres," for as she always holds the center of the ste ge. 1t is her name that really ought to figure in the title
 It has already been said that this { character Is one of the very few living personalities that MT. Shaw has creat- ed; indeed, 1t Is almost the only one, and in this play especially, it stands out head and shoulders above the oth- CT. akady Cecily" is a human being surrounded by company of perform inS dummies, whose only excuse for do- ing any of the remarkable antics they perform is because Mr. Shaw is behind the scenes pulling away at the strings. The part of Lady Ceclly 1t Is reported. was originally written for Ada Rehan; other rumors, dating since the produc- ton was staged, have it that 1t was written for Ellen Terry herself, but, as a matter of fact, 1t could be interchang- able between either of two actresses, for whatever role Is suitable to Ada Rehan, Ellen Terry can better.
 Under the interpretation of the great artist, Cecily became another Lady Wilful, whose every look and move ment is another charm, a delightful revelation of the richness of a nature that could accommodate itself to every environment and could bring every manner of man, from the American gentleman to the 'longshoreman brute, to do her bidding. Miserably made quate as was the play, considered as a while, yet there was one character in 1t which is a genuine creation, and that atcnes.
 Miss Terry's supporting cast was quite up to the not very difficult task of enacting the wooden images that carried on the action of the play Rudge Harding as Sir Howard Hallam and George Elton as Felix Drinkwater were the best of the lot.