AMUSEMENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 172, 21 July 1903, Page 2

AMUSEMENTS.

OPERA HOUSE.

"A WOMAN'S POWER."

It would be hard to come to the conclusion that "A Woman's Power" waa faultless even within its own modest limitations, but it would also be quite impossible to condemn it outright. The first act, both in episode and characterisation, gives one of the best scenes in pure melodrama of the last few years; the other acts are extremely unevengood, bad, and indifferent by turns. The faults are, however, likely to be remedied as the play goes on. There were fipst night hitches which in fairness one is as much bound to point out as one is in kindly consideration to make allowances for the difficulties of a first production. The plot is relatively simple. Mark Denholme, a wealthy Anglo-In-dian, has a worthless step-son named Cyril Staker, who forms the centre of an extraordinarily wicked circle, including the diabolic Bell Conquest. Denholme makes a will in favour of his sisters, Hetty and Nellie Conquest, which leaves Staker penniless. The testator entrusts the document to his Indian servant, Ranjit Singh (who is not a cricketer, but a singularly heroic "man of colour") to bear to the Rev. Philip Dale, a clergyman in the village where the two girls live. Staker kills his stepfather in accordance with the pleasant schemes of Bell and himself, and the rest of the characters turn up (more forgivably than generally in melodrama) at the village of Gaythorne. Here a sub-plot is developed, which is on the whole cleverly interwoven with the main development of the piece. Stephen Harris is an infatuated and desperate lover of Hetty, who is beloved of the clergyman. This clergyman, who is of the muscular Christian type, saves her from violence, and Stephen is left to shake his fist at the church militant. Then enters Staker in the guise of a guttural Jew, who plots with him to obtain the will from the worthy Hindu. Diablerie becomes the order of the day. Bnake poison is put in the family teapot, the contents of which were destined to refresh the Leigh family and the curate. But Nellie Leigh, who has been totally paralysed over long years, succeeds in attaining the perpendicular and saying boldly that no one is to drink that tea, because it is poisoned. Meantime the worthy Ranjit has been chloroformed, and has been conveyed into the old workings of a coal mine, where some of the characters go to rescue him, are in turn imprisoned by a bomb explosion, and saved from death by a relief party headed by a hitherto jibbering idiot, who is called a Welshman and a fusilier, and who so far as mental lapses are concerned has done, everything he can to degrade His Majesty's uniform. Finally the crime is brought home to Staker and Bell, and all is as merry as the marriage bells which one can imagine ringing for Hetty and her curate. The "waits" between the scenes were a little unfortunate, punctuated as they were by idiotic whistling, the tattoo of clogs from the neighbourhood of the roof, and witticisms of an unrefreshingly ancient and primitive character. Miss Nellie Ogden played well as Bell Conquest, villainess of the piece, though a little more precision and certs ; nty would add to the part. As Hettie Miss Kate Gair was completely successful. Mr Mario Majeroni made a most admirable villain in Cyril Staker. He filled one with repulsion without the exaggeration that is usually employed to effect that result. Mr George Majeroni played delightfully in the small but highly important part of the Hindu servant, Ranjit. Jack Flynn, the Irish sailor, was far less offensive than the average of "comics" on the melodramatic stage —in fact, he was distinctly manly and often really humorous. Stephen Harris was too light for his part, but fairly satisfactory. The Rev. Philip Dale, the clerical hero, was somewhat awkward from the elocutionary point of view, but was manly and otherwise not ill-casted. The scenery was admirable, and the effects mostly uncommonly good. The burning colliery called forth enthusiastic applause, and frequent demands for the raising of the curtain.