FOOTLIGHT FLASHES.

(By Call Boy.]

The Lucas Company have decided to go on tour. They begin at Invercargill on Tuesday next.

The Inman Dramatic Company open the new Town Hall and Theatre at Mastertoa in February next. Mr Wilson Barrett and his company scored an unequivocal success in ‘ Glaudian,’ with which their Australian engagement began at the Princess’s, Melbourne, on tho 18th inst. Of the performance the ‘ Argus ’ says:—“ The death scene is admirably planned, executed with much detail, yet with absolutely no tinge of melodramatic extravagance. Throughout the performance the restraint and balance of Mr Barrett’s acting are quite as noteworthy as its force. ’He is never feverish or hectic in a part which offers great temptations to an actor inclined to tear a passion to tatters. His strongly-marked aquiline features and fine physique fit him admirably for the character in point of appearance; he has a voice at once melodious and penetrating, which can be attuned to the expression of deep feeling or can ring clamantly. His carriage is easy, his method generally restful, even in passages charged with tragic fervor. Few actors could sustain so sure and unfaltering a grip upon the audience in such a part without at any time either over-straining the pathos or descending into stridency and rant. The sneering mockery that played about the features of the Glaudian of the prologue, the orisp, cure speech, the scornful callousness rather than malignity which is the keynote of bis character, was as deftly delineated as the corroding misery and despair which weighs upon him subsequently. Mr Barrett, could wish no abler support than he gets from Miss Maud Jeffries in the later scenes. The reception this young lady encountered at her first appearance must have convinced her she was in the presence of a friendly audience, and she played the part cf Almida with all the expressiveness and pathos it demanded.”

The Hellers are again in this colony, and are at present in Nxpier. Since their former visit three years ago they have toured South Africa and the Australian colonies. Madame Heller still appears in her thought-reading performance. Mr Heller shows the Lumiere biograph, including, with other pictures, the Melbourne Cup of 1897, with Gaulus. Another artiste just out from London, who is with the company, will be Miss Vera Havelock, who has the reputation of being a neat skirt dancer. Mr Percy Abbott is the musical specialist. Caleb Porter, of * The Sign of the Cross ’ Company, was originally a surgeon. He has been connected with the stage for over ten years. He is very clever with his pencil, and is a dead loss to journalism. He is proud of bis first engagement contract, which reads much to this effect:— To Mr Caleb Potter: I hereby engage you for my forthcoming tour at a salary of one pound •fifteen shillings (£llss) per week (playhouse pay) for seven performances (If required) In each week, and half salary (or any extra matindes. You undertaking to act and understudy all parts for which you may be cast during the said tour, and also the duties of prompter. You to find your own dresses (except in costume plays), wigs, and other properties. You to attend rehearsals for one clear week in the town of opening, previous to commencement of tour, and to pay your own rail fata to such town, and to be there In time for rehearsal on Monday, December 23rd, 1889. I to pay your third class railway fares on each journey taken with the company after joining. I to have the right to terminate this engagement by a fortnight’s notice. You to abide by all the rules and regulations of the various theatres in which my company may he acting. Millicent Sandman Palmer. December 9th, 1859.”

The lady who plays Stephanua in ‘The Sign of the Cross’is Mrs Porter in private life.

Senor Saraaate has given to his native town, Pampeluna, all the jewels presented to him by Royal and distinguished persons iu the course of his career. The articles, which will be placed in a museum, are valued at £6,000.

Zacconi, the great Italian actor, has been electrifying the Viennese with hia powerful impersonation of Oswald in Ibsen’s ‘ Ghosts.’ From the beginning he characterises Oswald as a man with hereditary spinal and mental disease, and carries the’idea right through the performance with realistic power which defies criticism. The Emperor Francis, after witnessing the performance, said: “ His realism makes me shudder.”

Miss Eileen O’Moore (better known as Miss Bessie Doyle), the violinist, has got together a concert company for an Australasian lour, beginning at Auckland. She will have the assistance of Mr and Mrs Reginald Coke, who were specially engaged in London. Mr Coke is a ’cello player with a high reputation. As a boy he played with the famous Joachim quartet, Mrs Coke is a mezzo soprano of good voice, who brings credentials from English critics. Melbourne ‘ Punch ’ “ went for ” Miss Ada Ferrar, who had the temerity to say in Adelaide that “ a Melbourne audience lacks spontaneity and warmth of welcome.” According to our facetious contemporary Melbourne outdoes all the other colonial capitals in the warmth of her welcomes. “But then, you know,” it goes on to say, “ the dear professionals are never satisfied with mere sweets. When they get marmalade in a spoon they want it in a shovel, and the appreciation of an audience has to take the form of a mild idolatry, or they think they are neglected.” Miss Ferrar need not expect Dunedin audiences to gush. They are hard to move sometimes, but when they do thaw they make ug for lost time, and, when a good understanding has been arrived, at, are apt to become quite demonstrative.

The Marquis of Lome, in cod junction with Mr Hamish M'Cunn, has written the music of an opera which will be produced in London shortly. * Diarmid 1 is its title, and the part of the heroine will be undertaken by Miss Cecils one of Madame Marchesi’s moat talented pupils. Marrying in haste and repenting at leisure is the experience of Mrs Amy Eva Burroughs, nde Gonrlay, who appeared before the Divorce Judge at Sydney last month and.asked for a dissolution of her marriage with Herbert Burroughs. She stated that she was married on June 2, 1890, at St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney, after an acquaintance with her husband dating from the 10th of the previous month. Burroughs had then been only a few weeks in the and received remittances from his father. After a short time, however, she had to resume her professional duties for three months. In 1894 monetary troubles arose, with the result that they made the acquaintance of the bailiffs. Finally her husband, against her wish, left her to go to Nowra. On two occasions she received a remittance from him, but in 1895 he came to her for money, when she had none to give. The Judge said that his desire to prevent young people marrying in haste

and then getting a divorce when they were tired of each other led him to feel some hesitation In this case. He thought, however, that desertion had been proved, and ho granted a decree nisi , returnable in one month.

The new “piano prodigy,” Bruno Steinde’, who is only six years old, will make hui first appearance in England at the Crystal Palace, in London, at the opening concert of the season, Tho child has already created a sensation on the Continent, and his teacher, Professor Leechotizky, is said to have expressed the opinion- that he is by far the most extraordinary of all the “wonder children ” who have yet oorao before the public.