STAGE JOTTINGS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 161, 9 July 1910, Page 12

STAGE JOTTINGS.

BOOKINGS. ; ... ■ (Dates subject to Alteration.); HIS MAJESTY'S. July 7 to 16 — McMaion Eros: ; ' • '' ' ) Jnly 18 to 31— Hngb J. -Ward. . August 1 to IS — J. C. Williamson September 1 to 3 — Auckland Boxing As - sodatton. September 5 to 24 — J. C. WllHamson September 26 to October 19 — Allan Hamilton October 20 to Hovember 1 — BYed-Graham. OPERA .HOUSE, KOXAL AEBBKT^HAXrL, AND TTVOLI . Pictnres — Nlsatly. " ■ ' Things are so <M 1 at present that the arriVal of "The Girl from the Rectors" at the end of the month will be doubly '-welcome. Meanwhile pictures are Mr. Fuller admits that he is having the "time of Oris life" with regard to ibis -businese, and other houses are doing equally well. Money has been turned away several times at nighty and: the matinees are also crowded. Green-roome have /been' thick with rumours about three-cornered theatrical enterprises being engineered by Madame Sarah Bernhardt, M. Edmond Rostand, and M. le Bargy. The latest ■ and most plausible report is this. M. Rostand has had a "Faust ,, up his sleeve for years, and the play is nearly finished. Hβ has almost promised it to M. le Bargyr and has tentatively proposed it to Madame Bernhardt. Tie idea is that she should bring it out when she comes back from America next springj and M. le Bargy lias finally left the Comedie Francaise. We would then see a "Faust" by Edmond Rostand, with. M. le Bargy as the Doctor and Madame Sarah as Mephistopheles, which ought to be a remarkable experience. Sir Squire Bancroft, who has just entered on his 70th year, is one of the most representative of English actors. He was born on a Friday, and this day in his case proved a lucuy one, for he is, with the exception of David Garrick, the only actor who has made a fortune in his own theatre without the aid of provincial' and American tours. It is about half a century since he made his first appearance at the old Theatre' Royal in Birmingham at. the princely salary of £1 a week. He retired from the stage in 1885, and was knighted in 1897, Sir Squire Bancroft has long been a great favourite with the Royal Family, and it was at the invitation of the late King that ho became a member of the Marlborough Club. 1 The Drama League, which; has just been organised in Chicago for the elevation of the American stage, is going about its business in the only way that can possibly be effective. Its members are pledged to do all xitey can to det'troy the audiences for undesirable and inane plays. ''When a bad play comes to town, -K-e hope, through organisation, 'to keep people away from it," said one of the organises of the league It is however, absurd for any person or group of persons to imagine that they can the kind of drama that will effectually uplift the stage. It has, •first of all, to be something the people like, lake the suffrage movement, this one will not "be able to accomplish much until the time is ripe. Create the need or desire for great drama, and it will be forthcoming. The people own the stage. When they want it cleansed the necessary rivers will undoubtedly be available, and perhaps by then the Drama League -will have grown to be a Hercules. The trouble lies in an educational system that leaves its graduates with a taste for the most ordinary vaudeville. Educators have learned that children from the kindergarten up can be taught to discriminate between good and bad pictures and good and bad music, even between good and 'bad literature. But they omit drama from the curriculum, although almost any child is more interested in the drama than in any other art. Groups of children will scurry from the schoolroom, to play "soldier," "keeping house," or "visiting." They ibegin early to enact plots and to give imitations of their home life in their own little plays. There is the cue for the educator if he will only accept it. Madame Yvette Guilbert, in the course of an interview a few weeks ago, stated: "It was in 1892 that I first had the honour to meet the Monarch whom Paris mourns as much as London, and who of all crowned kings was the greatest patron of the profession to which I belong. Curiously enough, it was King Edward who first suggested to mc that I should come to England, which he did on the occasion when I first had the honour of meeting his Majesty, at the house of Mrs. Ogdeu Gillette, at Caen. Mrs. Gillette had engaged mc to sing at a fete, and after my performance was over I was presented to King Edward, then, of course, Prince of Wales. Hβ expressed himself as being very pleased at my singing, and talked to mc for quite a long time about the Paris theatres, which he knew very welL He told mc I ought to come to London, and was kind and gracious enough to say that he was sure I would be very well received there. "Ah, sir," I said, "if you will come to hear mc in England, 1 shall have no fear of failure.' 'Oh, we shall see, we shall see, , replied his Majesty." Lady Constance Stewart-Richardson, whose performances on the Music Hall stage are certainly what Yankees call "the limit," is said to have asked her doctor to vaccinate her -where the marks would not show. He said he first must see her dance at the Palace. Next day he said to her, "My dear lady, I have seen you dance, and the only thing I can suggest is that you should swallow the lymph." Insurance against acton* marrying is the latest from America. According to ■the "New York Dramatic Mirror," Messrs. Cohan and Harris are applying to Lloyd's for a £10,000 policy against the possibility of Mr. John:~Barrymore, the "matinee idol," who is appearing in "The Fortune Hunter" in America, getting married. "For the purpose of obtaining the insurance," says the "Dramatic Mirror," "Mr. Barrymore has made affidavits declaring he is not at present engaged and that he is not contemplating matrimony." A meTe insurance policy, however, is not going to prevent Mr. Barrymore from marrying if ha meets the right girl and she says "Yes." "If I meet her, and she" will have mc," 'he eaid, in an interview, "not, fifty thousand dollars nor fifty million •will deter mc from leading her to the altar. I come from a marrying family, and I think that if Lloyd's write this policy they -will take a bad risk. Personally, I think that an artist is injured in his work by marriage, but I consider a home and children the greatest things in the world, and superior to the finest art whatever. Marriage is a duty, but art- to the artist is a more or lese selfish: .pleasure.' , ;\

An Irish opera, written in the native tongue and set to characteristic music, has been produced at the Gaiety The- ■- : otre, London. The work is entitled "Eithne," and the libretto is by Thomas O'Kielly, the music by Robert O'Dwyer. The story, says the "Bra," is mythical, and tells how the High TCing o f Erin's favourite hound is killed, an act that is apparently regarded as murder. The . King's son is accused of the deed by his step-brothers, but is saved from banishment by the intervention of his fostermother, who fixes the guilt on the proper . parties. The opera was anng by distinguished vocalists, and well received. In .his younger days K"rng Edwan was very fond of paying a visit behind the scenes, where iris charm and good humour delighted everybody, while his knowledge of technical stage affairs was also apt to surprise a good many worthy persons. There is a description of one of these visits in Mr Bram Stoker's re-, collections of Henry Irving which is worth quoting now:— One night — it was October 18 (1880)— the Prince of.Wales came .behind the scenes, as ihe was interested in the working of the play ("The Consican Brothers"). It was known he was coming, and though, the stage hands, had been told that they were, not supposed to know that he was present, they all had their Sunday clothes on. .It was the first time His Hoyal Highness had bpen "behind" in Irving's management; and he seemed very interested in all he saw. King Edward VII. has, and has always had, a wonderful memory. That night he told Irving how Charles Kean had set the scenes, the lights and lefts being different from the present setting; how Kean had rested on a 102 in a particular place; and so forth. Some of the 1 older stage men, who hnd been at the.PrinI cess' In Kean's time, bore it out afterwards I that he was correct in every detail. That I night the men worked as never before; they were determined to let the Prince see what could, under the stimulating influence of ills presence, be done at the Lyceum, of which they were all very proud. That night the tableau curtains remained down (during the preparation of the Opera House scene) only thirty seconds— the record time. During the performance of "Pete" in Sydney, while Kate Cregeen was ibending over her che-ild in anguish prior to bolting from home, a scandalised male galleryite cried, "Be a mother; take it wibh you!" and burst into loud sobs. The police tried to fire the interjector, but as ihe was sober and had the sympathy of the audience, they ultimately desisted. It recalled to mc, says a writer in the "Bulletin," how, many years ago at Melbourne Royal, just as Humpy-Logan was—about to steal the hero's papers, a spectator yelled, "A&, ■would you!" and the orange he had been sucking missed Humpy's ear by a fraction of an inch or thereabouts. There is ample proof on every side of the rapid advance being made by the cinematograph. When the movement was quite in its infancy it was predicted by the press that "animated pictures" might be relied on, the more they developed, to take a firm hold upon this attention of the public Particularly interesting evidence of the good use to -which, they may '. be put is to be found in a new series, ', entitled "The Byeways of Byron," which ; has just been introduced in London. They ; are the work of Mr. J. W. Gilbart-Smith, M.A., author of The Cradle of the Haps- j burgs," and serve to illustrate in artistic fashion some of the leading incidents in 1 Byron's career. , The moving-picture is certainly moving, j According to the latest report from Paris ] these things have happened: (1) A great • surgeon resolved to have all his big j operations einematographed for -Qic bene- j fit of students and posterity. (2) The j operator turned a dishonest pound by < selling the films. (3) A great lady, late- L ly convalescent, got the shock of her life ! ■, when, at a theatre, she saw herself j j brought out and scientifically carved — j j on the screen—for the amusement of the ] \ crowd. (4) The surgeon is claiming ] heavy damages from the operator. £ Mr. Malcolm Gaskell, in 'Mass Rachel '<■ Crothers' successful new play in London, 1 "A Man's World," was a newspaper pub- t lisher. He was a strong man, who knew ' what he wanted, and generally got it. i He wae in lovo with Prank Ware, a 5 woman novelist, and he wanted to marry i her. She had adopted a child some years ■before in Paris, when the unfortunate c girl who had brought it into the world * died, deserted by its fatn'er. The libtle } <boy was almost like her son, and she i firmly belie vied, that its father had com- c mitted the worst offence of which a man £ could be guilty. It was after she had 1 admitted her own love for Gaskell that 1 both discovered that he %vac the "boy's ' father. He made out a good case for ' himself, as such cases go. And what c was done was done; it was not right that * the happiness of two more lives should t be destroyed. To the doubts that would i not down—that he would not have for- 1 given her were the taJbles turned, and i that she never could escape the memory 4 of his brutal selfishness—he answered: £ "This is a man's world 1 . Man has a standard for woman. He knows she is < better than he ie, and he demands tbat 3 she be—and if she isn't she's got 'bo suffer ] for it. Thafs the whole business in a 1 nutshell." Towards the time when men < and ■women may have more nearly the < same moral code because women will ] tolerate nothing else, the play advances ] at least one step. The woman stands ( by her convictions, and sends the man j away as the curtain goes down. ; According to the "Era"—which now de-votes-a considerable space to cinemato- ; graph shows —something of a sensation . has 'been caused in London by the splen- 1 did acting of an exceedingly clever film , entitled "A Victim of Bridge." It is an , Edison product, and in immense demand. The story is as follows: The young wife of a -well-to-do city man is a victim of bridge, and piled up losses which she dared not tell him. On the night when the winners have made especially strong . demand for payment, her husband bringe •home a little gift, a bottle of peculiar imported perfume. She has previously sent out her maid to pawn her jewellery, ; and is horrified to learn that the amount it brings fails short of what is required. Later, the maid puts some of the new perfume on the handkerchief of her mis- ". tress. When dinner is over the card- '. sharpers invite her to join in the game. ; Again she loses. She is driven to despe- '. ration at their demands and threats of disclosure. Entering the music-room, she discovers that a valuable diamond pin on < the ehoirider of the lady at the piano is loose and about to fall. Pretending to pat her hostess on the shoulder, she covers the loosened pin with her handker- ! chief and takes it away. Later the loss is discovered. A maid is suspected, and ' arrested. Through the odour of the pe-- J % culiar perfume the husband . concludes that Ms wife is guilty, as he knows more ' of her losses than she suspects. Quietly he holds out his hand in wordless de- I maud to his wife. Hesitating a momeutj she places the handkerchief containing ' the jewel in his hand. He seizes the opr ! portunity, and slips the jewel into a crevice in a near-by chair. During the search which the officer makes the jewel is found. When they return to their own ' home the crisis is faced. He believes ' he cannot forgive her. She packs up her * belongings to leave, but he stops her, \ tears up her confession, and folds her in •his protecting embrace. 1 i i , "SHE DEADHEAD, ' 4