The Saving Grace

Examiner of Plays' Summary:

The ‘saving grace’ of this light and pleasant comedy is the airy humour of its hero throughout the troubles which have been brought upon him through his elopement with his colonel’s wife whom, after her divorce, he married. He has of course had to cut short his military career, and is now living in shabby-genteel poverty, which he courageously bears with macabre-like optimism. A note of welcome tenderness is truck in the man’s chivalrous if whimsical devotion to his rather prosaic wife, while much simple natural fun is elaborated in the genial shifts to which the couple are put in his too ambitious dinner which they are giving to a wealthy young suitor for the hand of their niece. The story is of the slightest, and strikes its most serious note in the final rehabilitation of the easy-going hero when he succeeds in getting back into the army on the outbreak of war. In spite of its thinness, however, the comedy may make its mark by its bright human characterisation, if this be suitably handled on the stage; and in any case the result can only be wholesome in its entertainment. Recommended for license. Ernest A. Bendall.