AMUSEMENTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 136, 8 June 1907, Page 6

AMUSEMENTS.

HIS MAJESTY'S THEATRE. ART IN THE SENSATIONAL. The outstanding feature of "Human Hearts" is the acting, and the hero of the production in fact as well as in name is Mr Ernest Leicester. To dare to be artistic in a sensational play is praiseworthy, to ba able to be brilliantly and impressively artistic is beyond all praise. Even if a real artist has only to tell the story of the great Panjam he does it as no one else can do it, and makes you happy. But Mr Leicester has material enough in this play to show much more than a bare minimum of his powers, and last night he placed himself in the very first rank of artists who have visited the colonies in recent years. Perhaps if fulness and strength of personality are to be counted as well as artistic method he is actually the best in one's memory. Of the piece it is difficult to write —in some, ways it is comnionplaeeiy melodramatic, but it is quite as certain that there is in it an overplus of rcaiity. of intelligence, of unconventionality that places it well above the thousand and one "domestic tragedies" over which the jaded playgoer has sighed less from sympathy than sheer and desperate boredom. Tlie comedy is good and fresh all through: the lasL act—thanks largely to the magnificent playing of Mr Leicester —is tragedy worthy of a far less sensational theme. The plot reveals a problem play written by a man who knew that problem plays were not commonly marketable goods, and so dipp.d the texture of his theme in all the colours that attract and beguiie. Problem: Flighty and ambitious girl, poor but noble husband, old lover, husband's loved child—that is all. Application: Girl not only flighty but bad: must plot with her lover for the death of her husband, sec the wrong man killed, and her husband charged with crime: must gloat over husband in prison, kidnap child, and do anything hut let lover kill child in order to secure the family farm. But re-ally the plot, is not fair to the piece, which, even apart from acting that would make almost any play worth seeing, had a fascination and a hold on the emotions beyond easy explanation. For one thing, the.ro are fine | touches that glance healthily at a truth even amid bouts of the merely theatrical. Of such a kind is Tom Logan's rage with his wife when she taunts him about his idiot, brother (whose idiocy, it must be admitted, is rather apt to lapse into normal powers of mind). But the best thing in the play is all acting—Tom's talent respect, to his dead wife. This prolonged scene is splendidly impressive. Mr Ernest Leicester is an actor of unusually imposing presence, with a remarkably strong and res-onant but not unnaturally melodious voice, a face full of power and varied expression, and a resource in gesture that is rarely refreshing. Whether be speaks a nothing to a child or utterrs a word of heart broken regret the actor lost ip the reality of an actual man. Miss Valentine Sidney is good enough to play adequately to her brilliant lead. And ber part, that of a heroine who is the villainess of the piece, is beset with immense difficulties. Her clear enunciation, her personal attractiveness, aud the fine use of an effective gaze count for much in. a thoroughly successful interpretation. The tramp Mason of Mr G. M. Berkeley was one of the best pieces of comic relief ever seen in Auckland. The -whimsicality, the utter grotesqueness of this inimitable being, combined with his glorious unconsciousness, arc beyond all hope of realization in print. Mr 11. B. Montford, who played the villain Anus i.'i'e. grows on one as the play proceeds. He is a commei'.dably restrained and natural actor, who has no need to act the polished sauvity of his pari. The Ruth Larkins of Miss Eva Quin was pretty in its gentleness; and Mr Dunrias Walker bandied delicately the difficult part of the haltimbecile Jimmy Logan, whose mother was played simply and well by Miss May Hesford. The negro Moses, made op an.l played in the stereotyped Uncle Tom style, was fairly taken by Mr Lloyd Earle. The American atmosphere of the whole play was largely abandoned—probably wisely—since a half-measure of "local colour" is worse- than none at. all. Altogether, everyone who likes a good sensational play, most people who don't, and all who w 7 ish to find a really artistic actor, should see '"'Hnman Hearts" and Mr Leicester. THE STORY OF THE KELLY' GANG. At His Majesty's Theatre on Monday, June 17, Messrs. J. and N. Tait will present ihe highly successful picture, over 4000 feet in length, entitled, "The Story of the Kelly Gang." This film occupied over six months to manufacture, and cost a round sum of nearly £1000. In taking this gigantic picture it was necessary to keep employed as many as 50 people at a time, and the co-opera-tion of the Yii-torian Railway Department was needed for the engagement of a special train. A large number of the very latest European and American films will also he shown during the first part of the entertainment. The. box plan opens on Thursday morning at Wildman and Arey's.