TITTELL BRUNE SEASON.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 206, 29 August 1905, Page 2

TITTELL BRUNE SEASON.

"THEODORA." The authorship of "Theodora" explains much —both for good and ill. • A master of stage-craf , Victorien Sardou worked up his situations for an audience and not for the student. "Theodora,' like its better rivals, "Fedora" and "La Tosca," suggests no truths, works out no problem, and penetra es to no really great depths even of emotion. And yet it is in some ways almost a great" play. Its plan and its workingout —excepting always an almost deplorable first act —is imposing, and often r.earlv prodigious: while its scope for staging, wi h its gorgeous colour, its rapid change of scene, and its sustained action, render it one of tbe most palatable of all modern tragedies. The story ' of the Byzantine Empress Theodora, her growing contempt for the brutal Justinian, her secret love for the GreekAndreas, the plot for the destruction of the Emperor, in which her lover is one of the leading spirits; the strife between loyalty and passion; the vain endeavour to bury an infamous, if mostly circum-stance-made, past in an ideal devotion; and the end of things in despair and tragedy—on such a foundation is constructed a fubric which, if i lacks the higher inspiration, is still of undoubted strength and command. Miss Tittell Brune's Theodora reached some really fine heights of tragedy, and her treatment of the scenes in which she secretly meets Andreas, the thrilling episodes in which she twice saves his life, and the death scene, are worked up with great power, artistic feeling, and conviction. The blemishes were all of a minor kind, the achievement was immense. The Emperor Justinian of Mr Atholwood was an especially artistic study. The al'ernate cruelty and weakness (always inseparables) were very finely indicated. Mr Roy Redgrave made Andreas a fine reality. The part as played by him was full of pathos, simplicity, truth. The final scene, in which he forsakes his beloved in the reality of the hated Theodora, and drinks tbe poisoned po ion intended for Justinian, gave this fine actor scope for a most impressive and moving passage. The Marcellus of Mr Greenaway was not a difficult part (save in the cleverly-acted death scene), but it was distinct and very good. Euphrates was a rather foolish personage, of perhaps a comic but never a truly humorous character, and Mr Gran may have the satisfaction at any rate of knowing that he acted it perfectly. The other roles, including a good Belisarius (Mr Majeroni), and a fair Tamyris (Miss Stephenson, whose interpretation might be less direct and more mysterious in order to anticipate the tragic motif) were mostly capably treated. The staging and dressing were magnificent and luxurious in the extreme, and from the spec'acular point of view few colonial performances have excelled this production of "Theodora." Altogether, the tragedy desierved its very enthusiastic reception.