Maud Jeffries (1869-1946)

"THE SILVER KING"
Drama by Henry Arthur Jones and Henry Herman.
Produced at the Lyceum, London - 2nd September, 1899.
Reveiwed in the Daily Mail (London) - 4th September, 1899.

MELODRAMATIC REVIVAL AT THE LYCEUM

"The Silver King" has aged considerably - the fine old play shows signs of wear. Memory gave it a glamour it does not now possess; seeing it again we know that we have moved along in the years that have passed.

The actuality and modernity of the series of melodramatic reviews of Drury Lane, and of the later plays by Mr. Haddon Chambers, Mr. Grundy, and others at the Adelphi have spoiled us. Many of the newer melodramas were not, deservedly, successful - but they were of the time, they were "in the movement."

But "The Silver King" remains a stirring, moving, well-knit play - and it has the blessed quality of tears. It has more, it has a restraint of language which would make it a remarkable melodrama even now; it speaks volumes for the pluck of Mr. Henry Arthur Jones and the late Henry Herman, that they should have dared to do with only such a little rhodomontade in a melodrama written seventeen years ago.

To see the play at the Lyceum was to be mildly-shocked; unreasonably shocked, for "The Silver King" is a good play, and there have been bad plays at the Lyceum. But we were shocked when Sir Henry Irving produced "The Medicine Man." That was a very bad play and did not belong to the Lyceum tradition. "The Silver King" is a good play; but it does not belong to the Lyceum tradition. But the Lyceum tradition is probably now a thing of the past - which sounds like a truism, but conveys one's meaning.

The piece was received with rapture on Saturday evening. Of course we missed Mr. Willard as the Spider - most celebrated of gentlemen villains. But Mr. Wilson Barrett was there once again to give force and fire and pathos to the part of Denver, the man who thinks himself a murderer - who, as a matter of fact, really was a murderer in intention; there is Miss Maud Jeffries to make as winsome and tearful and pretty a Nellie as the heart of man could desire - Miss Jeffries has some notes in her voice, some little flashes of appeal and anger, which are really fascinating; Mr. Horace Hodges to give an admirable and touching rendering of dear old Jaikes; Mr. Wigney Percyval, to chill our blood and make our flesh creep as the immaculate Spider; and little Miss Phyllis Relph, a child actress with a wonderful voice, to compel our tears as Cissie. Mr. Manning as "Father Christmas," seemed to play with the character.

There should be a prosperous month's run for "The Silver King" while Mr. Barrett and Mr. Louis Parker's new play is being prepared. After the new play we are promised a series of revivals at the Lyceum of some of the works in Mr. Barrett's repertoire, then a Christmas entertainment, and then a Shakespearian season by Mr. Benson's company.