STAGE JOTTINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume XL, Issue 205, 28 August 1909, Page 12

STAGE JOTTINGS.

HIS MAJESTY'S THEATRE. August 24 to September 4—Allan Hamilton. September 6 to September 18 — Julius Knight Company. October 5 to October Iβ—Harry Rlekards' Vaudeville Company. OPERA HOUSE, ROYAL ALBERT HALL AND TIVOLI THEATBE. Picture*— Nightly. On Monday week at Hla Majesty's will commence an eleven-nights' season of romantic plays, with the ever-popular Mr. Julius Knight as the main attraction. The initial production will be Dix and Sutherland's military play in foul acts, "The Breed of the Treshams," in Which Mr. Knight will appear as the renegade 'Royalist soldier Reresby, known to his comrades as "The Rat." The play is said to be an exceptionally fine piece of literary work, and the stagecraft, especially; in the second act, in what is known as the "staircase scene," something out of the common. The action of the play takes place at Faversham, in England, in the year 1645, during the progress of the Civil War of Royalist and Cromwellian armies.

The statement of Messrs. Meynell and Gunn that their better companies will in future not include New Zealand ia their itinerary is the subject of some comment in the south. A writer in Christehurch points out that the "Jack and Jill" pantomime, Nellie Stewart, Royal Comics, and Chung Ling Soo, have all coined money in the Dominion, and to talk about depression in theatrical affairs is to talk rot. This writer ex presses the opinion that the real cause of the lack of financial success of which Messrs. Meynell and Gunn complain is that "On their initial tours of the Dominion they brought a series of mediocre blood-and-thunder melodramas and very indifferent companies, with some exceptions. New Zealand people are quite willing to suppor' good plays and good companies, and do so with a liberality which is marvellous when the size of the population is considered. But the best is not too good for them, and nothing short of this will satisfy them. The standard of theatrical taste is far higher here than in the Australian Federation, a fact which 'I have been endeavouring to get managers to understand for some years past, but without success. I venture to assert without fear of contradiction that so far from theatrical depression existing in the Dominion, there is no part of the world —when the size of the population is considered—where theatrical ventures are more liberally supported." Messrs. Meynell and Gunn considered, when they "sent their really clever musical comedy and pantomime company to the Dominion, that it should bo accepted on their own estimate, and that the public should be prepared to , pay prices that they grumble about in connection with the oldest established and most popular of Australasian organisations. The firm may depend upon it that if they bring over to New Zealand the class of importation that thoy are at present making from England, they will not find the Dominion th* least profitable part of the tour.

It is asserted that Oscar Asche was paid a retaining fee of £700 by Messrs. Meynell and Gunn, and guaranteed £400 per week of their Australian season.

Mr. Charles A. Wenman, general manager and "producer" of the "Cinderella" company, will sail again for London from Sydney next Tuesday by the Orsova, his purpose being to assist in completing the new company now being formed there by the Clarke-Meynell-Gunn firm. Mr. Wenman will arrive in Auatrulia again on 6th December with the artistic contingent in question, ai well as the material needed for the new musical comedies acquired for next year's campaign. These are Edward German's comedy drama "Tom Jones,"."The Arcadians," now running at the Shaftesbury Theatre under Robert Courtneidge; "The Belle of Britanny," a dainty romantic opera, which has just, ended a run of 150 performances; "The Gay Gordons," by 6eymour Hicks; and "Sergeant Brue" —the last-named being a musical piece which enjoyed, a long run at the Strand Theatre three years ago.

Miss Florence Baine s ("Miss Lancashire, Ltd.") was at latest advices touring the English provinces. She opens a season at the Fine Arts Theatre, Chicago, at Christmas, after which she appears in New York. A return tour of New Zealand and the Commonwealth will afterwards be undertaken.

Mr. George Alexander haa been made a Justice of the Peace for the County of London. A distinguished addition is thus made to the list of actors who have been raised to the Bench, among whom Mr. Edward Terry is an honourable example'

The Hugh Ward company, which commences its New Zealand tour at Invercargill on September 6, will be in Auckland the second week in November.

Messrs. J. B. Atholwood and Johnson Weir, both well known to Dominion playgoers, are members of the company supporting Mr. Walter Bentley in his present Queensland tour.

Over £250 was realised by the Brunton Memorial matinee at the Theatre Royal, Sydney, recently.

A strong dramatic company, headed by Miss Frances Ross and Mr. Walter Baker, under the auspices of Mr. William Anderson, will commence a tour of the ■Dominion next month.

The Fuller firm have definitely decided to re-illumine the camp of vaudeville at Christmas. The company will not be a stationary one, but will tour throughout the Dominion, opening in Wellington.

Miss Rose Musgrove finishes her theatrical career -with the conclusion of the War season at the Melbourne Princess's.

Over 70,000 people witnessed Bland Holt's "The Great Rescue" during its eight and a-'half weeks' run in Sydney.

"What started the riot at the performance of 'Hamlet' last night?" 'Why, Hamlet held the skull up, and said, 'Alas! poor Yorick, you are not the only deadhead in .the house.' "

The astounding news comes from New York that the Keith and Proctor management, one of the 'biggest vaudeville circuits in America, has issued an ultimatum to the effect that for the future the "mother-in-law" joke is to be barred from all the stages of their theatres. The announcement, doubtless, has Ifalhen upon the ears of sketch writers in the land of the wooden ham with the force of a sledge-hammer. To be deprived, by a single stroke of the pen, of one of their most ancient privileges cannot but be considered a measure as unjust as it is injurious. If jokes upon mother-in-laws are to he forbidden, Who in the name of all that is humorous may be made the subject of mirthful reference*

At the conclusion of the present season of .the Bland Holt Co. at the Sydney Theatre Royal, Mr. Bland Holt will temporarily cease operations, and hence the company will disband. Some of its members have been with Mr. Holt for twenty years, while an average among ten of the leading actors and actresses would work out at above thirteen. This must be unique in the history of the Australian stage, and shows in some degree how the success of this company has come about. The difficulty in securing a theatre either in Sydney or Melbourne is understood to be the cause of the disbandment—a result which will be regretted by playgoers, for the enterprise of Mr. Holt in the production of realistic melodrama has made him very popular.

Miss Viola Tree, Sir Herbert Tree's daughter, took her farewell of the dramatic stage at the Shakespearian revivals at His Majesty's, London, in the character of Portia, having decided to devote herself to operatic work, a career for which she has displayed such promising aptitude.

Miss Irene Dillon, formerly of the J. C. Williamson Company, is appearing in a new musical play, "The Yankee Mandarin," in Boston.

Writing to Mr. Edwin Geach from London last month, Mr. Frank Thornton, the well-known comedian, cays that things theatrically were never, so bad as now, nor the outlook worse. Still, there are some hopes of improvement as the spring season approaches.

With the J. C. Williamson's Royal Comic Opera Company is Mr R. A. Cane, one of the most expert violinists and orchestra leadere the theatres of the Commonwealth and New Zealand have seen. The firm recently sent him a telegram to Adelaide congratulating him upon his 20th year with J. C. Williamson's companies, and what is most remarkable, upon the fact that during that long term lie never missed a single performance.

As Mr. Bernard Shaw's plays always stand a chance of being barred by the censor, a good title for his next piece would be, "You Never Can be Shaw."

Miss Cecilia Loftus, who married Recretly the other day, Dr. Waterman, a well-known physician of Chicago, made a runaway match in 1894, when fifteen, with Mr. Justin Huntly McCarthy (the author and so n of Mr- Justin McCarthy, the historian. Five years later Miss Loftus was granted a divorce in the New York Supreme Court on grounds which were not stated. Cissie (she adopted Cecilia at a later date, upon the suggestion of Charles Frohman), is the daughter of Marie Loftus, and was born at Glasgow. She was educated at the Convent of the Holy Child, Blackpool, and whilst at school developed her faculty for mimicry. On July 15, 1893, wh«n she was fifteen years of age, she was placed in the bill at the Oxford Music HaU.

A German woman has invented an arrangement of mirrors on the stage which will throw a lot of ballet girls out of employment. One ballet girl will look to the audience as if she were twenty or thirty of her kind. The Johannies who hang round the stage door waiting for the iballet Jeannies- won't have to 3pend so muelv o« fancy boxes of chocolate whenr-tha* machine, isfuHy in operation.

An acrobat's "fire dive" in s Boston summer park is probably the most spectacular performance ever put on before the public. Standing on the platform of a tower sixty feet above the swimming tank, the surface of which is a mass of (lames, the specially-constructed diving-suit he wears Is oil soaked and then set ablaze. With flames surrounding his entire body, he shoots down through the air like a comet and disappears in the midst of flames which leap to a height of twenty feet to receive him.

"The Fires of Fate" is the latest contribution to the drama, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and the latest vehicle for displaying the heroic talent of Mr. Lewis Waller at the Lyric Theatre, London. Primarily the play d«-als with that old, old argument as to whether suicide is justifiable when physical life is a torture, and no hope is held out of recovery. This is the state of Colonel Egerton, and the argument for and against is carried on by his physician (affirmative) and his tpiritual friend and adviser (negative). But really this interesting state of things is only a prelude to a drama of adventure. All concerned go for a trip up the Nile, where the painracked Colonel falls in love with a pretty American, who also falls in love with him, but the man of pain is restrained by his ailment from declaring his passion. Then comes the romance. The party is captured by Dervishes, and dragged out into the desert, after a fierce fight. The men are about to be put to death unless they embrace the "true faith," and the women are to become slaves, when, at the last extremity, Colonel Egerton notes a heliograph in play on a distant sand-hill. It says: "Keep your pecker up!" And they do, until a detachment of the Camel Corps come to the rescue. Somehow or other, the shock of the incident cures the Colonel, who at once embraces the lady of his heart. The play looks like scoring a success.

Mis 3 Betty Ohls is rnturning to London, via Sydney, at the conclusion of the Wellington season of "Jack and Jill." Miss Ohls intends going on the variety stage. Her part of Jill in the pantomime will be taken by Miss Nancy Maher, who ptayed the Fairy Queen here, and the character of the latter will be filled by Miss Marie Eaton.

Matheson Lang tells a good story about his reecnt experiences at the London Lyceum. "So you enjoyed my Hamlet," he said to a dear old lady who had been saying complimentary things. "I am glad of that. So many people nowadays do not enjoy Shakespeare." "I know that. But the way you play it, it doesn't seem the least bit like Shakespeare," said the nice old lady.

Mrs. Browne otter tells an amusing story of an occasion when she was playing in "Frou-Frou" in Cape Town. As those who have seen the piece will remember, one of the strongest situations depends on the presence of a little child. 'There were two carpenters engaged at the theatre," says Mrs. Potter, "one a white man and the other a black man. The white man allowed his little child to play the child in the piece. One day it went home from rehearsal with a violent cold. That night I, as the wife of the jealous husband (Mr. Kyrle Bellew), had, as usual, to place the child in his arms; being rather hurried, and the wings being dark, I snatched up the child standing there, rushed on to the stage, placed the child in his arms, and he held it, face towards the audience, high above his head, saying: 'You, you', at all events, are mine!' It is a thrilling situation; but, to Mr Bellew's amazement, the child was greeted with a roar of laughter, which soon became perfectly hysterical. Lowering the child to see what was the matter, he discovered, to his horror, that it was a little ne'irro pot black." ' __-■> " XHE DEADHEAD.