Theodore & Co

Examiner of Plays' Summary:

There are a great many characters in this musical comedy, as I suppose it will be called, but the plot can be reduced to simple terms. In the first Act the Duke of Shetland invites a party to see a procession of the "Emir of Baluchistan". His nephew, Theodore, has caused tickets to be sold to more or less droll persons, who appear and cause confusion. Theodore is "Theodore & Co" a sort of bogus agency. A Mrs Blissett makes up to "the right honourable George Wye, minister of movies" to get an appointment for her husband, and he makes an appointment for her in Theodore's flat, which he thinks he can have to himself. The Duke discovers a photograph of his daughter, Pansy, in a punt with an undesirable man, and Theodore, to get her out of out, says it is the photograph of an imaginary actress, Baby Grand. The Duke proposes to call on Baby and Theodore gives his flat as her address. So in the first scene of act 2 Pansy is disguised as the imaginary Baby, another woman poses as her sister, a man as her uncle and so on. Mrs Blissett and Wye of course turn up and make more confusion. Eventually the Duke is got away, but says he is going to the Casino Music Hall to hear Baby sing. The Deception is kept going in the 2nd and 3rd scenes at the Music Hall, the Duke's attention being diverted while another woman sings instead of Pansy, and at the end Theodore comes into a fortune and marries Pansy. I find no harm in the dialogue or songs, though the former may be vaguely dashing at times, and nothing suggestive seems to be intended by the business of the play. "The Emir of Baluchistan" alluded to and not seen in Act 1 appears briefly in a ridiculous we in Act 2, pp 39 and 53. Possible there might be something annoying to the India office in this, but I hardly think so, the play being nonsensical and his appearance so brief. I do not think any minister in particular is intended by the "Minister of Movies". Recommended for licence. G. S. Street.