New-York tribune., 1921-12-24
The New Play
BY Percy Hammond
'sThc Dover Road by
Charles Cherry and Others,
lis Quiet, Intelligent Di-
version at the Bijou

Mr. A. A. Milne, in his charming
trihe. "Thc Dover Road" invents a
new and meritorious philanthropy.
Experienced as you arc in aims-giv-
ing and the relief Of distress, you may
doubt that such a discovery has been
made. You have seen the oil and tup-
pence of your compassion penetrate
suffering's most remote headquarters
from devastated France to cnfamined
Vienna, and you are skeptical when
you are told that Mr.. Milne has found
another route to Samaria.
Nevertheless he has done SO at the
Rijou. where Mr.. Charles Cherry, as
benehccnt Mr.. Latimer, has estab-
lished a cure for elopement. 1t is Mr..
Cherry's eleemosynary passion to look
out for and arrest upon the road to
Dover such foolish couples as may be
making their sinful way from virtuous
England to the voluptuous Riviern.
Mr.. Cherry is rich and humorous as
we'll as great Of heart. With an expan-
sive and beguiling hospitality he in
tercepts elopers and he imprisons them
courteously upon his estate in Kent,
until. after q week or two of propin-
guilty, they grow to know and TO loathe
one another. Whcreupon they return,
more or less intact. to their homes.
The case illustratec delecthbly at
the Bijou is that of Leonard, British
lord (Mr. Reginald Mason), who, hay
ing left his wife, Eustasia, is making
his way with Anne, his lady-love, from
London to q Channel boat Mr.. Cherry
and his wonderful butler (Mr. George
RiddelD, trick the absconders into re-
naming the night in his luxurious
domicile. In the morning Mr.. Mason,
having been deprived of his clothing
and his razor, and having been caught
by bad cold in a drafty room, is no
romantic object. His beard, his
sneezes. his dishabille, his appetite for
kippers and Kidneys, mitigate his
sweetheart's matutinal admiration
for him. She. in a fresh and unsterco-
typed impersonation by Miss Winifred
Lenihan, laughs her romance away;
and, I think, you will like her as she
does so. did.
Of course, Eustasia (Miss Molly
Pearson) is also patient at Mr..
Cherry's unique sana torinm, for she is
trying to clope with Nicholas, a green
though winning fellow, as denoted with
quiet skill by Mr.. Lionel Watts. But
reporting play by Mr.. Milne is as
fiat procedure as decanting cham
pagne, and the bubbles OF his comedy
are too iridescent to be examined in
detail. Of Mr.. Cherry it is to be said
that he we'll knows his way about the
quizzical character and practices Of
Mr.. Latimer, who is laughing. earnest
Barry chap.
Often l have been entertained by
Mr.. Cherry's likable eloquent reti-
cenccs, but never more so than in "The
Dover Road" He is dining, for in
stance, with some inpedcd elopers, and
he IS gorgeous in velvet dinner coat
and other sartorial insignia of super
sophistication. He grins occasionally
at the Indignation Of his reluctant
guests. Don't be afraid" says he,
this chicken en- casserole was one of
the Buff Orpingtons, her grandmother
was Wyandotte and her great grand
mother was q Rock-one OF the Plym-
outh Rocks" l found "The Dover
Road to be quietly twinklng, adult
cntertainment--one that you will en-
Joy, but which will bore many of your
friends