Cirrus

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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

Mallory Cardell (not too well educated but good-natured) resides at her aunt Bedelia (Mrs Mac) McVicars' lodging house and falls in love with one of the guests, Ken Halloway (a young artist). Wopples, an elderly lawyer, arrives with the news that an old gentleman who was nursed by Mallory after an accident has died and left his fortune to her. Complications soon arise with the arrival of Ken's brother (who needs money to avoid being thrown in gaol) and Ken's former girlfriend, Carmen Roussel, who although having previously jilted him nevertheless influences him to borrow 500 pounds from Mallory to pay her gambling debts. When Mallory finds out the purpose of the loan she in turn jilts Ken. It is only after his rival Phillip Greyson attempts to persuade Mallory to go away with him that she realises how much she still loves Ken. The tangle is eventually straightened out and 'all's well that ends well.'

Much of the play's humour came through the character of Mrs Mac (Maggie Moore), the kind-hearted Irishwoman. Another character, Spike Mullins, an ungrammatical messenger boy who is also vainly in love with Mallory, also supplied a good deal of humour.

Notes

The Green Room's theatre critic, E. D. K., writes of the 1923 Palace Theatre (Sydney) premiere : '[I have] seen better plays that The Limit... but [have] also seen very many worse. The play appears to be of American origin, and has been slightly adapted for its Australian production by changing its geographical allusions from American to Australian. It is a pretty little play, with an interesting storyline and a plot somewhat stereotyped, and is interpreted by a very capable company headed by the evergreen and inimitable Maggie Moore' (November 1923, p6).

Production Details

1923 : Palace Theatre, Sydney ; 29 September - ca. November. - Prod/Dir. Kate Howarde. Troupe. Kate Howarde Company. Cast incl. Maggie Moore (Bedelia McVicars), Andrew Higginson (Spike Mullins), Grace Dorran (Mallory Cardell), Ian McLaren (Ken Halloway), Lionel Lunn (Frank Halloway), Allen Shaw (Phillip Grayson), Sydney Knowles (Wopples), Dorothy Robertson (Carmen Rousel), Gordon Amesly (Constable Moran).
This entry has been sourced from on-going historical research into Australian popular theatre being conducted by Dr Clay Djubal.