Bijou Theatre, London

‘A trial performance of a short one-act play by Miss Clarice Laurence, entitled “A.E. 24,” was given at the *Bijou Theatre last Thursday afternoon. The playlet might with advantage be judiciously stretched to at least twice its present length. It tells with a certain crisp naiveté that is not unattractive how a little work-girl, Sally Lane, outwitted a wicked German spy, Miss Mums, who left evidence of her guilt about in the most reckless manner. Miss Muns held Sally and her nice Scotch friend, Kirstie, up at the point of a pistol, and, locking the door behind her, went off to see if the fateful document was really thrown in the waste-paper basket, as Sally had asserted. No sooner had she left than Sally remembered the fire-escape, and off she and Kirstie trotted to Scotland Yard to foil the direful machinations of the enemy. The little piece was very well played by Miss Kitty Fielder as the Spy, Miss Peggy Talbot Daniel as Kirstie, and by Miss Clarice Laurence, who portrayed the uneducated, quick-witted Cockney girl skilfully and attractively. Miss Laurence has done very useful work in New York in such well-known plays as “Bunty Pulls the Strings,” “Bought and Paid For,” “Kitty Mackay,” &c’ (The Era, 23 August 1916; the performance also noted in The Era, 13 September 1916). [* There was a Bijou Theatre in Bedford Street, The Strand, London (mentioned in The Era, 2 August 1916).]