The Extra Special

Examiner of Plays' Summary:

A rather amusing little comedy with some biting satire at the expense of journalists and their methods. The scene is laid in the office of 'the Comedy', evidently a sensational rag. After some farcical business by the office boy there is a dialogue between the editor and his assistant cursing the Press Censor for restricting their activities: the time is at 'the beginning of the War'. There is no harm in this, as it reflects much more on the indifference of the journalists to the public interest than on the Censor; it will be very offensive to some newspapers which may be supposed to be models for 'The Comet' but that is hardly our affair. I have marked, however, a couple of passages on pp.4 and 5 as making fun in bad taste of war charities, but it would be perhaps excessive to cut them out. Then enter a woman reporter who has been dismissed for not falling in with 'The Comet's' unscrupulous methods. After pleading in vain with the editor she produces a small bottle and threatens to commit suicide unless he gives her £50. In the end he does so and she goes off: the bottle which she has dropped, is discovered to be empty. Recommended for License. G. S. Street.