These episodes are taken from the miracle plays performed during the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries by the trade guilds of Coventry and York. They were acted out-of-doors, upon great ambulatory stages known as pageants, during the celebration of the feast of Corpus Christi, on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. The full range of the plays was at York from the Creation, at Coventry from the Annunciation, to Doomsday. Each guild had its own pageant, and made itself responsible for one or more scenes; those of the Nativity fell at Coventry to the Shearman and Tailors; at York, where the number of guilds was greater, they were distributed amongst the Tilers, the Chandlers, the Masons, the Goldsmiths, who could best deck out the Magi, and the Marshals. Many other towns had similar plays, but nearly all are lost. The York text which has survived was written about 1430, that of Coventry in 1535; but each goes back to an original, probably in part a common original, compiled in the fourteenth century and revived from time to time. If, there fore, a good deal of verbal alteration, has been necessary in the process of adaptation to a modern stage, there is abundant precedent in mediaeval usage. The adapters have done their best to preserve the mediaeval simplicity of speech and motive. Clerks wrote these plays, but they wrote them for the folk, and the folk has impressed them with its own homely sentiment and childlike sense of wonder. One or two of the carols are found in the Coventry text; but others of much the same date and belonging to much the same order of literature, have been inserted.

E. K. CHAMBERS.

KINGSWAY THEATRE,
GREAT QUEEN STREET, W.C.

<table><tr><td>Proprietors</td><td>KINGSWAY THEATRE, LTD.</td></tr><tr><td>Licensee</td><td>F. R. LITTLER</td></tr><tr><td>Sub-Licensee</td><td>LILLAH McCARTHY PRODUCTIONS, LTD.</td></tr></table>

By arrangement with Miss LILLAH McCARTHY.

TUESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 14th, at 8 o'clock.

Subsequent Evenings at 8.15 p.m.

MATINEES THURSDAY and SATURDAY at 2.30 p.m.

“THE DAISY”

A Legend of the Roundabouts.

Founded on the original of F. MOLNAR

By OSMOND SHILLINGFORD AND A. L. ELLIS.

Characters:

<table><tr><td>"The Daisy"</td><td>HENRY CAINE<br/>(By kind permission of H. M. Harwood, Esq.)</td></tr><tr><td>Flimmer</td><td>DENNIS WYNDHAM</td></tr><tr><td>A Police Inspector</td><td>G. DICKSON-KENWIN</td></tr><tr><td>The Factory Manager</td><td>FRANK LOVETT</td></tr><tr><td>The Carpenter</td><td>J. LESLIE FRITH</td></tr><tr><td>Two Policemen</td><td>EDGAR NORFOLK<br/>MAURICE COLBOURNE</td></tr><tr><td>John Hunter</td><td>WESTON FIELDS</td></tr><tr><td>George Withers</td><td>ROLAND HOPE</td></tr><tr><td>The Police Surgeon</td><td>EUGENE LEAHY</td></tr><tr><td>Julia</td><td>MARY MERRALL</td></tr><tr><td>Mrs. Muscat</td><td>SUZANNE SHELDON</td></tr><tr><td>Mrs. Hunter</td><td>ALICE MANSFIELD</td></tr><tr><td>Maria</td><td>GLADYS GORDON</td></tr><tr><td>Louisa</td><td>RENA DAVIS</td></tr><tr><td>A Servant Girl</td><td>NORAH DE LANGE</td></tr><tr><td>The Magister</td><td>G. DICKSON-KENWIN<br/>EDGAR NORFOLK</td></tr><tr><td>Two Messengers</td><td>MAURICE COLBOURNE</td></tr><tr><td>Charles Smythe-Jackson</td><td>WESTON FIELDS</td></tr><tr><td>John Holder</td><td>ROLAND HOPE</td></tr></table>

<table><tr><td>Scene 1</td><td>The Fair</td></tr><tr><td>Scene 2</td><td>The Studio</td></tr><tr><td>Scene 3</td><td>The Studio</td></tr><tr><td>Scene 4</td><td>The Railway Arch</td></tr><tr><td>Scene 5</td><td>The Studio</td></tr><tr><td>Scene 6</td><td>The "Other Side"</td></tr><tr><td>Scene 7</td><td>After 14 years</td></tr></table>

Intervals after Scenes 1 and 3.

Programme of Music.

Before the Play.

<table><tr><td>"HAMPSTEAD HEATH" (from "London Day by Day")</td><td>Mackenzie<br/>1st Interval.</td></tr><tr><td>OVERTURE</td><td>"Don Giovanni"<br/>2nd Interval.</td></tr><tr><td>SELECTION from "L'Enfant Prodigue"</td><td>Wormiser</td></tr></table>

The Play has been produced, under the personal supervision of Mr. ANTHONY ELLIS, by Miss EDITH CRAIG.

The Scenery has been designed by Mr. GEORGE PLANK, and painted by him and Miss CLARE ATWOOD.

Ladies are currently requested to remove their Bonnets, or any kind of head-dress.

This request being made for the benefit of the audience, the Management trusts that it will appeal to everyone, and that Ladies will kindly assist in having it carried out.

<table><tr><td>General Manager</td><td>(for Miss LILLAH McCARTHY) Mr. ALLAN WADE</td></tr><tr><td>Business Manager</td><td>(for Mr. ANTHONY ELLIS) Mr. CHARLES TERRY</td></tr><tr><td>Stage Manager</td><td>Mr. J. LESLIE FRITH</td></tr><tr><td>Assistant Stage Manager</td><td>Mr. WALTER SCHOFIELD</td></tr><tr><td>Musical Director</td><td>Mr. ALBERT CAZABON</td></tr></table>

PRICES OF ADMISSION.

<table><tr><td>BOXES</td><td>£4 4s., Tax 12s.; £3 3s., Tax 10s.; £2 2s., Tax 8s.</td></tr><tr><td>STALLS</td><td>10s. 6d., Tax 1.6; BALCONY STALLS</td><td>7s. 6d., Tax 1./-</td></tr><tr><td>UPPER CIRCLE (first 3 rows)</td><td>5s., Tax 9d.</td><td>Other Rows 4s., Tax 9d.</td></tr><tr><td>PIT (Unreserved)</td><td>2s. 6d., Tax 6d.</td><td>GALLERY</td><td>1s., Tax 3d.</td></tr></table>

Box Office open 10 to 10. (Mr. DENT) - Telephone: GERRARD 4032

Nearest Railway Stations to Kingsway Theatre:

HOLBORN (Piccadilly Tube):

On leaving Theatre turn to the left and to the left again. The tube station is at the top of Kingsway, on the other side of the road.

BRITISH MUSEUM (Cent. Lond.):

On leaving Theatre turn to the left into Kingsway, and at the top turn again to the left past the Holborn Restaurant. The Station is in New Oxford Street.

Omnibus No. 44 (VICTORIA to KING'S CROSS) passes the Theatre.

A PECULIAR PLAY.

ROUNDABOUT LEGEND STAGED
AT THE KINGSWAY.

"The Daisy" is a play with an indescribably
curious flavour. Imagine a straightforward
"sob-stuff" drama of low life written by a mem-
ber of the second-rate intelligentsia of Budá-
pest with mystico-romantic ideas about the
Ultimate Meaning of Life. Imagine it—if you
can, that is—and you will have some notion of
this most peculiar play. I shall be interested
to see whether the British public will suffer the
piece gladly, or if it will find the Czecho-Slo-
vakian intellectual element in it altogether too dis-
quieting and alien. Meanwhile I should like to
record my gratitude to Mr. Molnar and his Eng-
lish adapters for an entertainment which, if it was
not wholly enjoyable, was at least unusual and as
such entertaining.

The Daisy is a young fellow who, when the
play opens, is the man who rides on the step of
the merry-go-rounds collecting the pennies from
the passengers. He is a dashing creature and
the darling of fat-and-fortyish Mrs. Muscat, the
owner of the roundabout. Jealous of the atten-
tions paid by the Daisy to a little servant girl,
who has come for her night out to the roundabouts,
Mrs. Muscat gives him the sack, and the Daisy
and his Julia are left together to face life with love
and eightpence in hand. Married, the young
couple take up their quarters with Julia's aunt, in
the Vale of Health (for the action of the play takes
place on a completely mythical Hampstead Heath).
The Daisy cannot find the work he wants, and is
too lazy and proud to accept what work he can get.
When his wife cries and is miserable he becomes
ashamed of himself, and vents his anger against
himself by beating her. Julia's announcement
that she is about to become a mother—an an-
nouncement made in the grand absurd stage tradi-
tion—goads the Daisy to desperation. He is a
swaggering, brutal fellow, but good enough at
heart. And he is weak of will. He lets himself
be persuaded by his criminal friend, Flimmer, to
attempt a highway robbery. After this point
the Central European intellectualism gains on the
drama of low life until no trace of the simple
Lyceum stuff is left. There is a scene under a
sinister railway arch where the two robbers attend
their prey. The Daisy launches out into a tre-
mendous speech about his conscience which is
wholly Ukrainian, and the same note is kept up by
the intended victim, who turns the tables on his
assailants, and keeping them covered with his
revolver, lectures the Daisy on what will happen
to him in the next world. The

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himself by beating her. Julia's announcement that she is about to become a mother—an announcement made in the grand absurd stage tradition—goads the Daisy to desperation. He is a swaggering, brutal fellow, but good enough at heart. And he is weak of will. He lets himself be persuaded by his criminal friend, Flimmer, to attempt a highway robbery. After this point the Central European intellectualism gains on the drama of low life until no trace of the simple Lyceum stuff is left. There is a scene under a sinister railway arch where the two robbers attend their prey. The Daisy launches out into a tremendous speech about his conscience which is wholly Ukrainian, and the same note is kept up by the intended victim, who turns the tables on his assailants, and keeping them covered with his revolver, lectures the Daisy on what will happen to him in the next world. This speech is cut short by the arrival of the police. Rather than be taken by them the Daisy stabs himself. Julia soliloquises over the corpse at some length, and there follows a short and admirable scene between her and Mrs. Muscat, the only other person in the world who cared for him. If only the whole play had been up to the standard of this scene! Alas, it was not.

And now the central European intellectual became completely victorious. The Daisy appears in heaven before the judge. He is still proud and obstinate, refuses to repent or even to admit that he was in the wrong about anything. The judge defers his sentence. Fourteen years must pass, and the Daisy will be sent back for an hour to earth to see his wife and daughter. His conduct towards them is to decide his fate.

A simple-minded author would have made the returned Daisy reform and repent in his hour on earth. But Mr. Molnar is a member of the Intelligentsia. The Daisy loses his temper in the old style, and actually strikes his daughter. There are signs, however, of amelioration; and when the dread messengers come to summon him back to the other world, we are not without hopes that all will ultimately be well with him. So ends this queer dramatic phenomenon.

Mr. Henry Caine played the part of the Daisy and played it well. He did not altogether convince us in the emotional moments; but I doubt whether any actor could have made one believe in them. Mr. Dennis Wyndham was very sympathetic as the hardened criminal. Mrs. Muscat, the Daisy's first adorer, was convincingly played by Miss Suzanne Sheldon; and Miss Mary Merrall did very well in the excessively difficult rôle of Julia.

A. L. H.

"GARDEN OF ALLAH" MUSIC.

WHICH I WILL PROUDLY STATE TO BE THE FIRST TO DO IT.

12

"THE DAISY."

A PLAY OF ROUNDABOUTS AND
PURGATORY AT THE KINGSWAY.

<table><tr><td>"The Daisy"</td><td>Henry Caine.</td></tr><tr><td>Plimmer</td><td>Denis Wyndham.</td></tr><tr><td>Inspector</td><td>G. Dickson-Kenwin.</td></tr><tr><td>Factory Manager</td><td>Frank Lovett.</td></tr><tr><td>Carpenter</td><td>J. Leslie Frith.</td></tr><tr><td>Julia</td><td>Mary Merrall.</td></tr><tr><td>Maria</td><td>Gladys Gordon.</td></tr><tr><td>Mrs. Muscat</td><td>Suzanne Sheldon.</td></tr><tr><td>Mrs. Hunter</td><td>Alice Mansfield.</td></tr></table>

Signs of an understanding heart are not lacking in "The Daisy," but the mind of the author is a doubtful quantity.

This new play at the Kingsway is described as "A Legend of the Roundabouts," founded on the original of F. Molnar by Osmond Shillingford and A. L. Ellis. It would be interesting to know exactly what was the work of each.

Who, for instance, was responsible for the portrait of the Daisy himself? The intelligent observation of the gipsy temperament most probably belonged to the Hungarian writer, but its translation into a Hampstead Heath type is no less an achievement, one would imagine.

Then, in a carping spirit, we would like to know who invented the elaborate "preparation" for the attempted murder. Even a stage expert might have been expected to realise that artless references to a newly sharpened knife have the effect nowadays of making an audience conscientiously object to acts of violence.

And before the final curtain our questionings resolve themselves into one insistent "Why?" After an opening in which we had found delight—because of the understanding shown of simple hearts and minds, the authors make heaven open through a photographers' backcloth, and treat us to a vision of purgatory contrived after the pattern of a "Welfare Centre."

Yet "The Daisy" should be seen if only to be disagreed with. Apart from the skill with which some of the types are drawn, the acting of Miss Mary Merrall, Mr. Henry Caine, Miss Suzanne Sheldon, Miss Alice Mansfield, and Miss Gladys Gordon has a merit that the playgoer cannot afford to miss.
M. W. D.

Daily Mirror

Thursday, September 2, 1920

WOMAN SCENIC ARTIST.

Miss Clare Atwood, the daughter of an architect, at work with Mr. George Plank at Kingsway Theatre, where they are designing the scenery for a new play entitled "Daisy," to be produced this month.