THE STAGE IN SYDNEY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 249, 20 October 1928, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE STAGE IN SYDNEY.

PLAYS AID PLAYERS.

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(By a Correspondent.)

SYDNEY, October 5.

For "The Vagabond King" Stella Wilson has been selected for lead, and James Liddy for the vagabond himself, Francois Villon, the tattered poet of the reign of Louis XL Arthur Greenaway will beLouis, and Mabel Gibson, late of the Gilbert and Sullivan Company, will be Hnguette. the girl who follows Villon in boy's clothes and dies for him, being stabbed in a brawl in a tavern in mistake for the poet.

"Interference" appearsto have made no great impression on Sydney theatregoers, bat unqualified praise is handed out to C. M. Ballard in the part—that played by Sir Gerald dn Maurier in England. Charles JL Ballard gives a magnificent performance. He needs no stellar headlines—and gets none!—to indicate the radiance of his stardom. He simply runs away with the play, giving a flawless interpretation of a successful

London doctor* Bitonin is pleasant and pretty as his wife. Leon Gordon revels in the role of the villain, but he, or the part, is rather slow and wearisome, and as one of the Charles' of England declared of himself "an unconscionable time in dying." May Collins plays the hysterical villainess in black pyjamas aid with a voice like a burst water main—all gurgles.

"The Patsy" lias come to stay. It is a box-office proof play, and an actressproof part. I predict a three months* run for it in Sydney, and there is fait of taking it to London -after with bene Homer in the name.part. Irene Homer is "The Patsy." She has a method all her own, and while old- stagers may

declare that she violates every law of the stage, and has no sense of pace, Irene just gets away with it, and the audience positively worships her. She on t pretty, but she's right for the part. More homely than comely, she looksthe simple Cinderella, and her slow and shy manner and quiet voice—it's never raised above a conversational tone, and frequently is rather over-confidential—all suit the part. Actually, off stage, she possesses rather a trenchant little personality—but behind the footlights she plays Patrick, "The Patsy," like a moose. She is different and quaint, newcomers, besides Irene Homer, in "The Patsy, are A. S. Byron, who is cast as the downright, good-hearted, and huffv sort of father, and Sam Went, who "plays the successful lover of the Patsy's arrogant sister. Brandon Peters is handsome, upright, young and pleasant-spoken as the same sjster's cast-off lover, idiom the Patsy wins for herself by faithfully following his advice on how to catch a man. This is the second part in which Brandon Peters has given an excellent account of himself in Sydney. He came out with I«on Gordon, and plaved the young lawyer-brother in "The Trial of Mary Dugan," but was withdrawn from that company for "The Patsv." As a youthful leading man he is the best acquisition we have had for a verv long time. Vera Gerald admirablv handles the part of the hvsterical mother in "The Patsv," and" Eileen Sparkes is very violent indeed as the disagreeable sister. Miss Gerald came out with "A Cuckoo in the Nest," but was not sent to New Zealand with that company on account of taking up her present part.