Alice Crawford (1882-1931)

"Matt of Merrymount"
By Beulah M. Dix and Mrs. E. G. Sutherland.
Produced at The New Theatre, London.
Reviewed in the Hackney Express And Shoreditch Observer - 29th February, 1908.

Mr. Fred Terry's new piece, which was produced at the New Theatre on Thursday evening, February 20th, is, we should say, in for a long run. Mr. Terry as Matt scores perhaps his greatest success, so completely does he assume the role of an outlaw with many virtues.

The story is slightly weak in detail, but the acting throughout more than makes up for anything lacking in the plot. Matt is the scion of a noble house, but has left England through a quarrel with his cousin. He beleives himself to have killed his cousin whereas the latter is only slightly wounded.

The play opens in New England, whither Matt has fled to escape the penalty of his supposed crime. He is living as an outlaw, but falls under the influence of the daughter of the local magistrate. For her sake he ventures into the village and is taken by the authorities. Frotherton, the magistrate, sentences him to a year's forced labour in his service. Miss Frotherton takes a great interest in Matt, and mainly through her intervention he seems to have a fairly lenient term of punishment.

Unfortunately the cousin turns up just when things look like settling down nicely. He has taken Matt's place in England, and has been sent to take charge of Lord Killigrew's estate in Canada. Frotherton makes Matt over to Armitage, the cousin, for the remainder of his sentence. Matt refuses to wait on Armitage and escapes to England, where he reinstates himself in Lord Killigrew's good graces. In the meantime Armitage is forcing Frotherton to allow his daughter to become his wife. Lord Killigrew dies and Matt inherits both the title and estates, returning to the scene of his former hardships just in time to stop the marriage. The cousin is properly discomforted, and Matt wins the consent of Frotherton to marriage with his daughter. It is a style of play Mr. Terry has made quite his own. There are many exciting moments and not one wearisome.

Miss Alice Crawford is charmingly natural as the puritan maid, Frotherton's daughter. Miss Miriam Lewis does not quite do herself justice as the Gipsy maid, but it is rather out of her province we should imagine. The piece is exceptionally well staged, and throughout is full of incident. Though hardly likely to beat the record of "The Scarlet Pimpernel," it should draw good audiences to the New Theatre for many weeks to come.