The play first. It is the story of a princess of a mythical land, whose lover has been killed in war and who in the last act joins him. (The play is named _The Happy Ending_). The curtain rises on a dark forest, through which the princess is wandering and posing, and mumbling and moaning to herself. Comes then three Maeterlincian maidens also mumbling and playing chorus to themselves. Exit the mumbling maidens and enter the King and Queen of this mythical land. Mumbleth then these two for a while, till, without any warning, the King bluntly asks the Queen for a child! Yes! Right there in the forest he does it. It’s the last thing one expects in a fantasy, this realistic demand for a son and heir. But that’s a minor point. Like many another thing that happened, it had nothing to do with the drama. After a dreary scene, in which the wandering princess seats herself on some potato sacks and mumbles to the accompaniment of “yes, princess,” “no, princess,” spoken at half minute intervals by a dull-witted woodsman, the curtain rises on a scene, entitled in the programme “The Hereafter.” What a Hereafter! A bank of sunburnt stage grass: a bilious yellow tree: much amber light. Crowds of children with squeaky voices lolled and pranced about the place. The authors seem to have taken their cue from the old hymn: Little children will be there, Who have sought the Lord in prayer; In Heaven we all shall meet, Oh that will be joyful! I can assure you that it was anything but joyful. A sort of stagey joy was evident but not a sight of the real spontaneous feeling. There was a sort of Queen-hostess, who welcomed everyone. I have an idea she was Mrs. God or maybe assistant to St. Peter. She wore an elaborate shiny yellow evening gown; and a set smile after the fashion of the ladies in charge of Y. W. C. A. hostels on earth. A nice, well-spoken motherly sort of person this Queen was, who did her best to make everybody feel at home. When there was a wreck at sea or a railway accident, many male and female supers waddled their bodies in joyous movement across the stage and laughed and made mouthy noises. Oh, so glad they were to be in Heaven after the shocks they had gone through on earth. It was curious to note that they all entered Heaven with whole bodies and unmessed clothes, these merry wreck and collision victims.