MISS HARDINGE-MALTBY'S ENTERTAINMENT.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 286, 27 August 1908, Page 8

MISS HARDINGE-MALTBY'S ENTERTAINMENT.

—' - ■ .'■ The ' dramatic. 'entertainment, giveri-last ■ night in the ■' Sydney Street'.. Schoolroom : by' Miss Hardinge-Maltby .and her'pupils was :a most enjoyable .one, and: deserved a: much larger-audience than was present. The only 'complaint anyone had to find-with, it was its .\brevitjyand that/fault will' be* remedied tonight when the Duchess of Bayswater "is to replace one of the shorter'pieces.! •.;■ Miss' Amy Kano and .Mr. ..Eric Lyon. did very well in the ; curtain-raiser; L" That; Landlady," in which :Mr'. Lyon took i the'part."of the talkative, and sentimqhtally. reminiscent landlady. He has rather a tendency to drop his voice,'so that some of .his sentences werp lost, but Miss Kane's enunciation- was very distinct! Mr. 'Ellice Mills is always amusing,, and both he and Miss Fultori:made,tho.,yery, most of the slight little farcical sketch "A Show of' Hands," with which, the entertainmbnt closed: '' .

■;To that ".Kitty - Clivei Actress,!', was I the'gem.'.of the.evening is r :to -imply- that it wis bright,-'s'phrkling, .arid" brilliant,' alidad-; jectives. which one would chooso- to; use. were they not .so overdone. It is a delightful, little sketch' by Frankfort Moore, ivho has well studied-the days of Garrick^and.excellently did . Miss ; Hardinge-Maltby , embody his,, idea of the gay, capricious Kitty, who meets at an inn with, an ignorant and conceited country actor and.teaches him a smart.lesson. The actor sneers at 1 playwrights', 1 'afilbrs, and David. Garrick, and declares. that; no ."actor, coiild ' mako. him beliovo such a _ ridiculous story as'that of " Romeo and Juliet." Mistress Kitty ,being what,.she is,, tho' natural result is'that , she makes fine sport of the overweening youth, and' in less .than no time he has believfed the most preposterously absurd story she could invent, and his implored her to marry.-him. • Mr. Vivian R-hind played his . ungrateful fatuous part;to admiration,' and as for' Miss' Hardinge-Maltby. herself her versatility was a revelation to those who had' riot previously. seen her in a part' that, gaveher so much scope. " How. did Garrick look •playing Hamlet when. 110 saw tho Ghost?"' asked the, actor,. Jack Bates,' superciliously, and very, spontaneous was tho applause with; ■which thei.audience .greeted Mistress: Olive's: amazingly-graphic answer.',-As the'hostess of. the inn, Mis 9 Elsie Rawsori had only a small part !to play, but she did it'prettily.* : The orchestra of the Girls' Realm Guild, under the .direction , of Miss Eileen. Ward, played before the performance and during the , intervals.' . The' members of this orcbe'stra are Misses Ward, Beauchamp, Webster, Hennsh, ! Newman," Dean, Russell, and Seddori. The ontertainnient is to be. repeated to-night.