ENTERTAINMENTS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 338, 27 October 1908, Page 8

ENTERTAINMENTS.

THE BLAND HOLT SEASON. " THE GREAT RESCUE." "The Great Rescue," a melodrama in fo'A. acts, ,' Mrs. Malley Miss Harrio Ireland Alice Bedford Miss Jennie Pollock Lady Ninniford Miss Bessie Major Vic Ninniford Miss Muriel Dale Harden Hooker Mr. Arthur Styan Harry Bedford Mr. Max Maxwell Sebastian Faro Mr. Charles Brown Lord Wilfred Winston...Mr. Godfrey Cass Alf. Hooker Mr. Leslie Woods Lord Stafford, Earl of Bedford Sir. Maurice F. Kemp. Sandy Macdonald Mr. Alf. Harford Pat Corrigan Mr. Carleton Stuart Wi Lung Miss Dorothy Brunton Probasco Mr. Charles Wheeler Bill Bedford ..' Mr. Bland Holt

" The Great Rescue," produced by the Bland Holt Company before a crowded audience last evening, is a melodrama in its mellowest sense, the adjective being used in. the sense of its Welsh derivation given by one authority as the word mall, meaning "soft, melting, insipid." " The Breaking or the Drought," produced earlier in the season, told of the woes of the Australian squatter with a shambling pen, that here and there showed the colour of. what might, if pursued on ' right lines become the basis of a national melodrama at least,'and here again in "The Great Rescue" Australia ' —somowhere north of Brisbane —is taken as the_ locale of tho play, which is encouraging. It is not a great or even a good play, as it stands naked and unashamed in the scrip,, but dressed with, the admirable art of John. Brunton in clever collusion with mechanics as applied to the stage by produces of the realistic school, it becomes a show to ba' reckoned with, and. it certainly pleased ill- - ordinately last evening's big audience. The " story is dramatic enough for anything. Bill Bedford, a plucky mine-owner, has sunk his all in tho Wombat mine,'which, looks like a "duffer." His debts have piled up, and have been bought by his arch enemy, Harden Hooker, who threatens to use his power to ruin Bedford, when a widow, Mrs. Malley, who knows enough to gaol Hooker and who has taken a fancy to Bedford, buys the papers from Hooker.' The action is observed' by Bedford, who redeems the widow's cheque by exchanging for it Wombat-scrip to tha value of £10,000. At this point a 'fabulously wealthy reef is struck in the mine,,' and Bedford, seeing that he has been "done," resolves,to stop the transfer,, which ) gives the opportunity for a sensational race between-a railway train and a motor-car. The end'of the drama sees Bedford aggressively affluent and married to the merry wiijow.' Bedford's daughter has fascinated a poker-backed lordling, and his son has also united matrimonially with a pelasant representative of the aristocracy. The last faint pulse of this quivering melodrama is enlivened by the'dramatic-appearance! of the villain who conceives it a fine idea to send Bedford " plumb "to :hell " in the ;middle of . his guests. Needless io say,' his. end' is ignominious defeat,- and', the drama ends. . "soft and melting", in an atmosphere .of. orange blossoms, wedding cake, and millions, as numerous as Brewsters. '. . ■

"The Great Rescue" makes no great demands upon the players. Bland Holt is a bright and chirpy Bland Holt .as ..Bedford, and Mr. Arthur Styan bites and , barks as vehemently as in. other plays as the big , bad man. Mr. Max Maxwell was quite unin-. teresting as Harry Bedford, and Mr. Godfrey Cass as Lord Wilfred of the rigid spine was prosontable. Highly exaggerated, but scream-, ingly funny, character sketches were submitted by Mr. Charles Brown as Sebastian Fare, Mr. A; Harford as Sandy Macdonald, and Mr. C. Stuart as Pat Corrigan. Miss Jennio Pollock was charmingly fresh and natural as Alice Bedford; Miss Bessie Major fussed about as Lady Ninniford, arid Miss Muriel Dale, as her daughter, was good to look upon. Mr; Leslie Woods did well as Hooker's son, and Jtiss Dbrothy Brunton as a Chinaman was obviously a very iiice girl. But in "The Great Rescue" the play is not the thing altogether. John Brunton h&B painted a cloth that, if framed, would adorn •the "line" at the Royal Academy—it. is, the cloth'that fills in the back of tho 'scene bf .the' Wombat' mine.' There is a'running stream; a rough track, red-brown rocks, / and a riot of discriminate colour in tho' herbage, and the vista of- typically Australian bush. The composition is excellent, and in .all respects he has satisfied all that art asks, but so seldom receives. Another pretty set<was "Sea View Hotel, Townsville,'' with' the", hot still air of northern Queensland ad- ■ mirably "felt," in the seaward' outlook beyond the trailing festooiis'of'roses'. The sensation of the play is .the afore-mentioned racs'ibetween a motor-car and railway express,, worked on the panoramic principle, with tho train and car stationary with the whole countryside whirling by. ■ Laughter was mingled with hearty applause at thip scene, as the car would buck in its standstill haste. Another, thrill was added in the rescue from a flooded mine by a diver (a sensation based on a West Australian'' incident of a couple.of years ago). The tone of Mr. .Percy Kehoe's orchestra is anaemic, owing tp. the absence of judicious brass. During one jjntr'acte Mr. Claude Solomon played very" sweetly a condensation of the'andante' movement in' Mendelssohn's • final violin con-' certo, and was .rewarded with hearty ap.- •' plause.. • "The Great Rescue" will remain the bil. until Friday night—the end of the season The comftiny is to- play a return season ,ii Welliugtoix commencing on February 1. "''ROYAL PICTURES. . The present programme of animated pic tures at ffis Majesty's Theatre is quite as any, of jts predecessors, and give's furblior evidence of the versatility, of the kinomatipgraph. This programme will be repeated for ;tho last time this evening,' as a complete change is to be made, to-morrow.

"WORjJjD wide pictures. ' . The Theatre Royal manages to keep up ita reputation foi;;honest entertainment. Among .the interesting pictures being displayednightly are "The Lonely Island of St. Kilda," "The Outlaw, "The Artist's Nightmare," and "Fly Paper," and a list of- rib-tickling "comics." , "MRS. WIGGS. OF THE CABBAGE PATCH." ■ " : "Mrs. Wiggs'/u will make her initial curt soy to a Wellington audience on Saturday next. From Louisville to New Zealand if a far cry, yet we- are to be shown a phas< of her nobie Kentucky life transplanted. "Aj evening of sheer delight," is the descriptioi tho London "Daily Expresi" gave of "Mrs Wiggs/ of tho Cabbage Patch" last yeat "Mrs. iWiggs. is a./dear," added the critic "Sho tec.tho most'lovable personality ou'-thi stage atithe present moment. This' is tiu kind, of play that one wants to describe it a breath. It is difficult io convey in tin printed' liim even -$0 vaguest idea of the delicious atmosphere the humour, the charm, the humanity of Mrs., Wiggs." Other London papers were equally complimentary. The play is claimed to bg an-excerpt from real life, and every character of it a portrait.- . MUSICAL j.UNJQN CONCERT. The concert of, the AVellington Musica> Union in the Town-11 &11 to-night should ai • peal to all sections of 'the music-loving pub tic. Tho programme will include a choral ballad "The music by Stanford, which despntyjs the sea fight- be tween, one little ship and' a Spanish fleet; this will be conducted-'byiiMr. Robert Parker; Mr. T. F. Dunhill will "play upon a Stein way grand piano in Greic.s "Concerto" in A minor, which will be conducted by Mr. -Leslie Pock, of Wanganiii; 'Miss Phoebe Parson* will sing the soprano solo "Ah Perfido," <. with orchestral accompaniment (Beetlvvcn) ( Mr. T. F. Dunhill, LoiYdiin, who is at present examining candidates on behalf-of .tin Royal Academy and Collide of! Music, will conduct his own composition, a : choral ballad,- "Tubal Cain," and Mr; Charles H. Stephens, a visitor from England/who is said to bo.a cultivated tenor singer, will,,sing a song cycle by Sullivan, 'T-hc Songs of tho Wiens." Arrangements Krva. becri" made for the liutt train to be delated till after the concert-. Tho box plan is open at the -Diesden. ; ' '-.i