The Light that Leads Me Home

Examiner of Plays' Summary:

Miss Hastings-Walton has written other melodramas, for her audiences, which seem never to tire of the impossible stage villains and the impossible stage “nuts”. In this case Villain number I is a would-be seducer who by a trick lures the heroine, a gifted Irish peasant girl, to his house where her brother who has lost his memory and is insane at the time from a wound, makes his way and slays the villain. She then marries the eminent surgeon who has almost cured her brother, so he remembers everything except the murder. Villain number I being dead, Villain number II takes his place – his cousin and a blackmailer. This villain finds out about the murder but the heroine takes it on herself and her husband thinks she was the first villain’s mistress; but her brother recovers his memory and other evidence proves her sexual innocence. An amiable old Irish priest, as is so often the case, forwards [sic] the play. He talks religiously rather much and there is a good deal of religious matter otherwise in the play, perhaps too much for good taste but audiences who take these plays more or less seriously would be rather edified than offended. The boy who kills the villain – and is let off by the authorities, is going into the priesthood at the end of the play. This strikes me as rather irregular, but since he was irresponsible at the time of the deed and is otherwise estimable, I do not think that anyone would object. Recommended for licence G. S. Street