AMATEUR PERFORMANCE.

Cromwell Argus, Volume VI, Issue 308, 6 October 1875, Page 5

AMATEUR PERFORMANCE.

■ THE “LADY OP LYONS.” The dramatic, entertainment given last Friday evening by the Cromwell Amateurs will undoubtedly form a “point of departure" for present as well as future members of the Club. The play selected for the occasion is one of such a high class that even the most sanguine admirers of and well-wishers to the efforts of the Club hai’dly anticipated anything but that the moat moderate success should follow such a selection. We believe

this feeling was so general that even that moderate success would have drawn forth the he\rty applause of the assembly who gathered to fitness the performance. But when we state that the piece was played throughout with icarcely a hitch—that it drew the largest assembly together which has yet gathered to witness an amateur or even a professional play in (Jrorawell—that the leading characters had to cctne before the curtain and bow their acknowledgments at the end of each act—and that finally the curtain dropped amidst tumultuous applause,—our readers who had not the pleasure of seeing the thing for themselvej will have some idea how well the amateurs must hav«. performed their several parts Tm “ Lady of Lyons,” as everyone knows, is fron the pen of the late Sir Bulwer Lytton, and i| illustrative of those turbulent periods in Flinch history which we group together as tip Revolution, and which immediately proceed the times pf the French Republic. The dferent parts were taken as follows :

Madatp Deschapelles, Miss E, Marsh; Pauline, Biss Alice Hargreaves; Widow Melnotte, Aiss Elizabeth Marsh; Beauseant, Mr R. Bro^i; Glavis, Mr Max Gall; Colonel Damas, Mr E. Fuller; Caspar, Mr Max Gall; Lhdlord, Mr J. Fraser ; Claude Melnotte, M. E. A. Drury ; M. Deschappelles, Mr E. Arpore. The attndanco, as already said, was the largest tha has yet assembled to witness an amateur olprofessional performance, for it could not hye fallen far short, judging by the araountfiken at the door (£45), of two hundred andpghty persons. The proceeds,

we may her\ mention, were in aid of the funds of the Wjmwell Athenaeum. The perfonWe began punctually at 8.30, by the Crom\yl Brass Band, under the leadership of W. H. Whetter, playing a choice overturein excellent style, upon the conclusion of w\ c h the curtain rose to the opening scene ( the Lady of Lyons. We have no intentio.of minutely criticising the progress of the p.y, as that would be manifestly unfair to y amateur company, the members of whichm this occasion acquitted themselves so eigllently well upon the whole ; but we sha proceed to find a little fault regarding two situations in the play, the points of hich were hardly made so prominent as theyhould have been. In doing so, we trust thathe amateurs will take it kindly. We repea that we. in nnmmnn

with everyone present W ere greatly pleased at the very high pot 0 f excellence to which they did attain: te y were each letter-

perfect m the various psages, their scenes were shifted at the rig. times and in the right manner, and whe% e add that they succeeded in gaining actor strives to attain, the ear of they will surely forgive ns for poin\ g ont aome little faults. In a dramatic pert m ance, nervousness must be thrown away, ag wa3 the case in the first scene, which d, overa the characters of Madame Deschapp] e s, her daughter Pauline, Beauseant, and Lionel Damas, the points of the play will be ig t f or a time by the audience. If the firsv eve i a ti 011 0 f the character is missed, how c the plot bo understood 1 If in the first set, the words had been spoken at half the rai>f S p ee d by both the ladies and the gentlei n w j lo appeared in it, the audience wouk lave hjg 0n immediately put en rapport with e characters, instead of having to think},em out during the progress of several sce 3- This was a fault shared by all the players Claude Melnotte’s first scene with his im, er wag liable to it, and it was apparent up i,h o ft p. pearance on the scene of Caspar, the osaen . ger. Indeed, the acting of this point was one of the first things,],i 0 h brought the speaking up to the mark, d he received for it, wo were glad to see, v e llmerited applause. Amateurs should ful to avoid hurry in anything, hur. speech or action, or hurried entrances K ] exits: hurried entrances, especially, b, t hurried speeches. For instance, the hiy with which Damas’ Italian queries were t to Claude, and answered by him, concea, the whole point of Claude’s discovered i\ posture by Damas, and the cause for the dn at all Wfl reoretted to see that Clau<

missed an excellent and all-important poirinc in the second act, when Pauline entreats Minis to tell her again, “ Sweet Prince, of thy ’ palace by the Lake of Como.” Claude must of necessity describe such a home, as she herself says, “ It is so pleasant to hear of thy splendours but the man’s noble nature revolts at telling her a deliberate lie, and he accordingly proceeds to describe “the home to which, could love fulfil its prayers, this hand would lead thee,” and then ho draws the beautiful picture of the “ palace lifting to eternal summer its marble walls,” with which we are all now familiar. Claude failed to clearly render the delicate artifice whereby Pauline is deceived, and consequently all who were not before familiar with the play would naturally conclude that Claude, despite the beauty of his description,—and he rendered it well, -was simply deceiving Pauline. Perhaps after all, when there were so many good points made, it is hardly generous to be too particular about those which were missed. It is only for the purpose of showing that

they can, with a little study, dp better oven than they did on Friday last, that wo mention any faults at all, and wo trust the amateurs will believe so;

At the conclusion, some misunderstanding took place, (the fault of some member of the Athemeum Committee, to whom the arrangements had been left,) whereby it was found impossible to give a dance as- had been intended, and a largo number of , people went away disappointed. We know not upon whom the fault lies, but ho deserves anything but the thanks of the dance-loving community. We trust some inquiry will be made into this matter, to avoid such an unpleasant termination in future.

The Cromwell Brass Band, wo mav add, besides playing the overture, also played between the various acts, and added much ,to the enjoyment of the evening. . The performance was repeated the following evening, the proceeds going towards defraying Club expenses. There was not a very good house. J