THE RIGNOLD COMPANY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVIII, Issue 73, 30 March 1897, Page 2

THE RIGNOLD COMPANY.

•' LIGHTS O' LONDON."

" Standing room only " was the rule at the Opera House last night, when Mr George Rignold and Company produced " The Lights o1 London " for bhe tirib time during their soason. The play is an old favourite, and well calculated to stir an audience into sympathy. The plot is on bhe well-known Hues of injured innocence and triumphant villainy, with corresponding reversal ut the finish, bub is rich in incident, and very dramatically evolved. The culminating thrill is given when the hero plunges into bhe caual to reECue a drowning man, who turns out) to be tho guilty one for whose crime the hero was imprisoned. This eftectivo scene evoked enthuaiaetic applause, which did noB cease until the dripping pair had come before the curlsain. The ecenory throughout was excollent, and each fresh change earned hearty rounds of applause. The acting wai quite in keeping with the requirements of the pieco. Mr Ri^nold, a8 Harold Armytage, treated the audience to a masterly performance. He was self-contained, bub always elective. The scone where, as an escuped convict, ho implores tho shoreman to give him shelter, w/ib. genuinely pathetic. „, Mi*s E. Hughes' impersonation of Bees Marks, the dovoted wife of the haro, waß another sterling performance, not a whit overdrawn. The cold blooded villainy of Clilford Armytngo was well depicted by Mr Diver, and Squire Armytage, the hobtempered and as usual, rather thick-headed father of the hero, found an able exponent in Mr Ovorbon. Miss E. Buckley, Miss Smithson and Messrs Douglas and Summers, as travelling artore, caused most of the amusement, and Mr Hawthorne's Philosopher Jack was a olever Coster sketch. The other characters were nil weii taken, and the incidental music was admirably rendered. " The Lights of Londou " will be repeated this evening.