"TWO LITTLE DRUMMER BOYS."

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 109, 8 May 1903, Page 5

"TWO LITTLE DRUMMER BOYS."

The Anderson Dramatic Company produced' "Two Little Drummer Boys" last night at His Majesty's Theatre, the play meeting with a well: deserved appreciation. It is'onejof'Mr Walter Howard's best,, and' comes to the .colonies with the hall-mark of substantial success in "England, so . that, given good acting and mounting, playgoers need not fear that it would be wasting.an even-, ing in 1 listening to it. The > Anderson. Company dealt With the play in a very creditable fashion. It required very careful acting by several artistes, for the dramatist : has not depended upon vivid scenes and a heavy plot for his effect. There runs; through the play a deep sentiment, and it is only, towards the end of,the last act,that the tension is relieved. "General Kingsley," of the 6th Royal Warwicks, has lost a most important document. It has been stolen by his son Allah, who is under the thumb of a • traitorous villain, "Captain Vincent Darrell." Through the clever rascality of "Darrell," and the generous desire on the part of "Captain Frank Carsdale" to shield the brother of his betrothed wife from" a "terrible disgrace, a net of circumstantial evidence is woven around the hero, and takes the whole course of the play to unravel. The subjects of the title, are the sons of the hero arid the villain respectively, and justice in its final- triumph deals hardly with the latter, for he drowns a drummer boy whom he believes to be "Eric Carsdale,"' when, as a matter of fact, his own son, "Jack Smith," has perished. The bulk of the work falls upon Mr H. W. Diver, whose delineation of the character of "Captain Darrell" was a pronounced success. Mr Diver played the educated cynical scoundrel to the life, his realism provoking many an exclamation from the audience. He never overdid the effect, but placed just the right emphasis upon his lines. When villainy was; foiled, Mr Diver's ' representation of the distracted man with no hope of avoiding disgrace, and a murder to his was a real histrionic triumph, and he is to be congratulated Upon the capable" manner in which v he sustained a very difficult role. Mr Harry Plimmer: was an excellent "Frank Carsdale," making a good impression in a well-worked-up scene where "Carsdale" attempts to snatch the dupe, "Allan Kingsley," from the talons of the bird of prey. In his love scenes with "Alma Kingsley" he pourtrayed the tender passion in a very convincing manner, quite'unlike, some conventional stage scenes of the , kind, which only provbke amusement; .arid in* the last act there was deep pathos' iti his pourtrayal of the returneoV lisuband who fears that his dear ones will not _c found, and over whose bead- still hangs a deep disgrace in-the eyes Of the world The intense love and- sympathy for ; a wronged lOver and husband was finely pourtrayed by Miss Ida Gresham as "Alma Carsdale," and while her opportunities were mainly in scenes which called for sympathy from an eagerly interested audience, yet Miss Gresham showed that in lighter y|i'n she was> just as. capable, for she acted charmingly, in the love scene with "Carsdale" in the first, act. Miss Helen Burdette's role of the ruined sweetheart of "Captain Darrell" required considerable de lieacy in ; the handling. It seemed as if her opportunity had come early, for in the first act her representation of the desperate woman, suddenly driven from a life of peaceful innocence into the downward path, commencing with a lie which blighted the career of a childhood's' companion,, Avas splendidly done. Miss Burdette, however, was called upon to show her powers again, when she Was equally successful. A fine representation of the veteran, "General *Kin«_ley," was'given by Mr George Chalmers; and Miss Gladys Hughes, as "Eric Cars,diile," one of the drummer boys, made quite a pleasing study of the part. The part of the other drummer boy, "Jack Smith." was in the capable hands of Miss Katie Towers, ,who put a lot of genuine "humour into it. The "comic relief," a very essential element* in a play so full of pathos, was capably supplied by Miss Josephine Thynne, Vs "Mollie," an Irish girl with two soldier sweethearts she loves equally well. The soldiers, Irishmen, too, were cleverly represented by Messrs Frank Hawthorne and Edmund Duggari, but the too frequent use of expletives was "a fault which need not be repeated, as it serves no useful end. Several other parts of minor importance were in good hands,, and the mounting of'the piece was quite Up to the company's.excellent standard. The introduction of a number of Auckland's rising generation into the bar-rack-room, made a thorough.lv interesting scene.