Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-03-01
them for her-at all events she now is on
the crest of the wave of success, after
many years Of waiting and hard work.

DIANA Of Dobson's" is the story of a
girl in shop who inhcrits q bit of money
and proceeds to make ducks and brakes
of it. with a result that is easily fore
been. incidentally. the first act of the
new piece is rather misunderstanding us
the girls dormitory at Dobsons a big
drapery shop. with the fair assistants"
preparing to retire. Diana Massingbrcd
Miss AshwelD is among them. and her
spirit is in rebellion against the wearing
sordidness of her life and the petty
tyranny that surrounds it. She has
been better educated than her associates
and has all the healthy young woman S
longing for luxury. ease and admiral ion.
AS If in answer to her craving. a letter
comes for Diana announcing that she
has come into a small legacy Of 81 800,
and she determines to have for once in
her life. real good time. She will have
everything that she has wanted-pretty
frocks and fun. and for one whole month
she will forget all about Dobsons. In
the second and third acts DIANA in hel
fine feathers, is staying at hotel in the
Engadine and posing as a widow. She
is popular and admired by the Hon. Vic
tor Bretherton. an impecunious aristocrat
with six hundred a year. Her scale of
expenditure naturally causes her to be
taken for a woman of means. and Brother
tons aunt is very anxious that he should
propose to her. He does. and the girl
The man is considerably disturbed and
charges her with having deceived him.
and this brings down on his head a very
tornado of plain speaking. He is a use-
less idler, ready enough to sponge on a
rich wife. but entirely unable to fight
his own way in the world or to earn his
own living. This is the end of the third
act, the dramatist ingeniously showing
that despite everything Diana and Breth-
erton really are in love with each other.
a y, ~, e,tv t1rf, ,vl,,
inal if almost entirely theatrical. The
scene is the Thames embankment at 3
am. Bretherton has determined to prove
that Diana is wrong and that he can earn
his living. He has for time given up
his income and has started out to make
his own way. This attempt has landed
him. after three months. ragged and pen
niless, to sleep on an embankment bench
Here again he meets Diana. also ''broke
to the wide,' as she puts it, and in the
gray morning he again proposes to her
and she accepts him. So much for the
story of the play. which is acted to per-
lection a the kingsway. With artistic
conscientiousness rare in a<'star.'' more
over. Miss Ashwell has taken care that
every character, however small, should
be put into the hands of a compel ent
player.
The author of Diana of Dobson's, ;"
Miss Cecily Hamilton, Is young woman
whose previous record of success as a
dramatist consisted of the production Of
one curtain raiser. Like the writer OF
Irene Wycherley,'' Miss Hamilton sent
another short piece to Miss Ashwell, WHO
did not care for It, but invited her to sub
NIT full-sized play. This she did at
once. and acceptance was as prompt as
In the case of the Wharton drama. II
the actress is not deluged forthwith with
the manuscripts Of the Enacted it will be
rather surprising, but II she finds among
the lot another Irene Wycheriey' or a
second Diana Of Dobson's'' the time she
spends over them will not have been
wasted.