Films and the Stage.

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 155, 27 March 1926, Page 19

Films and the Stage.

Now at the Queen’s Theatre is the Fox film, “Thunder Mountain,” a story of narrow-minded, ignorant, and intolerant people, and a "circus gal,” which provides a good plot for the action of the story Madge Bellamy, remembered for her work in “The Iron Horse,” makes a strong part of the circus girl.

David Higgins plays the part of old Uncle Clem, a peddler, in the Universal picture, “The Little Giant,” to be shown shortly.

Gloria Swanson is to be seen in “The Cost of Folly,” which is at the Paramount Theatre.

It is said that a sailing ship, whose decks ran red with the blood of a mutinous crew more than fifty-one years ago, was used by Paramount in filming scenes for "Code of the Sea,” in which Rod La Roque and Jacqueline Logan are featured, and which is now being screened at the Artcraft Theatre.

The Universal picture “Secrets of the Night,” with James Kirkwood and Madge Bellamy in the chief roles, will be shown in the Artcraft Theatre, commencing on Tuesday next, for a three nights’ season only.

The serial, "The Riddle Rider,” now showing every Saturday matinee at the Artcraft Theatre, is said to become more thrilling with each episode, and continues to attract a big attendance of boys and girls—all bent on winning one of the six valuable prizes given in connection with the free competition connected with this serial Episode effilit w.ill be shown this afterre. ■"

At the Grand Opera House shortly, J. C. Williamson, Ltd., will present the “Seventh Heaven,” a play of the Paris slums, written by Austen Strong, son-in-law of Robert Louis Stevenson. The play is said to have had an extraordinary. success in America for the past two years. It will be presented with a strong cast, which will include Miss Remy Carpen, who,. although of French parentage and born in Paris, nevertheless speaks English perfectly. She will appear as Diane, a waif of the slums, one of the strongest char acters contributed to the drama, a part which she has played throughout America. Opposite to her will be. Frans. Harvey, who on this occasion will have the role of Chico, described as a “sewer rat.” This "sewer rat,,” how ever, has ambitions, and the plot of the. play shows the gradual development of his character through his association with that of the little slum girl Diane, who, despite ner environment, rises superior to all her troubles and wins happiness for, them both.

Estelle Bradley, the young lady who v.on the beauty contest run by the “\tlanta Constitution,” and chos’en as "Miss Atlanta,” to represent that city :t the Atlantic city beauty parade, has a part in “A Broadway Butterfly,” a V -ster picture.

Zane Grey’s novel, “Wild • Horse ' 4a,” is now at the De Luxe Theatre, ... i<ii ’jack Holt as the hero. The story concerns the efforts of a gang of horse thieves to steal a great coral of wild horses.

The hectic abandon of Armistice Day, 1918, when the. cup of life brimmed over with the spirits of good fellowship, is captured in the screen adaptation of “Recompense.” Marie Prevost and Monte Blue have the principal roles.

"That Devil Quemado,” a picturesque story of border raids conducted by a , Quixotic character, Fred Thomson’s I latest western Master picture comedydrama, now showing at the Empress Theatre..

In the Master picture "The Crackerjack,” starring Johnny Hines, moviegoers will be able to view Miami’s show places.

Another name has been added to those players who will appear in William Fox pictures for tjie next few years. It is Leslie Fenton, a juvenile, who is said to be a prime favourite in the motion-picture world, and who was recently signed to a long-term contract. His most recent picture is “Thunder Mountain,” now at the Queen’s Theatre

St. James’s Theatre, Sydney, the new Hugh J. Ward theatre, which was opened yesterday with a gala performance of “No, No Nanette,” has been constructed on the intimate plan, the audience being brought closer to the stage than is usual in even modern theatres. The auditorium has been arranged to seat 1800 people, 900 in the stalls, 400 in the dress circle, and 500 in the grand circle, which corresponds with the upper circle. There will be two boxes only, both of the pen Gnt type similar to-. those of the

Princess and Palace Theatres, Melbourne. Above the St. James’s will be a roof garden theatre, which, though slightly smaller than the St. James’s, will be quite as beautiful in aspect and as luxurious in its furnishings and appointments. St. James’s will be notable in its entrances and foyers, so arranged that entry may be made to either auditorium through a colonnade of majestic beauty decorated and carried out in high-grade Carrara marble. From the colonnade it will be necessary to descend fourteen steps only to the stalls of the lower theatre, or ascend a similar number of steps to the dress circle. The various foyers, lounges, and retiring rooms will be richly appointed.. To convey patrons to the roof garden theatre a fleet of elevators, each designed to carry forty people, will be installed. Mr. Henry White, of the Princess and Palace Theatre, Melbourne, prepared the plans for St. James’s, and is personally supervising every stage of construction and embellishment.

Lloyd Hughes and Florence Vidor are the stars in the Master picture “Welcome Stranger,” now screening at the Strand Theatre.

Dorothy Mackail) has the role of Connie Martin, dressmaker, of a small New England seaport, in First National’s “Shore Leave,” to be here shortly

Robert Fraser in “The Foolish Virgin,” a Master picture, is cast opposite Elaine Kammerstein, and does some dramatic acting.

SYDNEY’S HONOUR TO SHAKESPEARE

STORY OF THE MOVEMENT The arrival in Auckland the other day of the famous Australian sculptor, Sir Bertram McKennal, attaches topical interest to the forthcoming dedication in Sydney of Shakespeare Statue, executed by the sculptor. At the end of 1913 and early in 1914 people in Sydney interested in letters and especially the Shakespeare Society, were divided in opinion as to the way in which they should observe the Shakespeare Tercentenary in 1916 (writes "Observer” in the “Sydney Morning Herald”). As it happened we were far otherwise engaged in that year, but the Tercentenary was kept up all the same. We in Sydney just before the war split up on the nature ot our memorial. One section, and that the smallest, thought a Shakespeare statue the fittest tribute to the “Master of the Revels to the human race,” as Emerson called him; a slightly larger group held that a university lectureship or scholarship would be best; a third section, and the largest, was pledged to a Shakespeare library, and this decision finally was adopted. But Mr. Henry Gullett, formerly president of the Shakespeare Society of Sydney, in which capacity his annual addresses, afterwards collected, were of singular charm, b;earith of vison, and weight of interpretation, held unchanged in his view that a statue was. the finest memorial that any generation of men could raise to one of their own race who had greatly deserved of them. He was not an admirer of our Sydney statues; indeed, his frank opinion of most of them was that the statues and their subjects were worthy one of the other. But the statue was to him the last gesture of our age in respect of a national figure, and Shakespeare he looked upon as not only the typical man of letters, but also, and even more, the typical Englishman. In that serene and somewhat enigmatic personage he saw enshrined the humour, tolerance, wide understanding of human nature, soundness of mind and body, and equal development of all his faculties that . belong to the English race in all its great exemplars. So considering, and having at his command a sufficient capital, and tthinking also to, bring forth the community spirit of Sydney, he began a correspondence with Sir (then Mr.) Bertram Mackennal in London respecting the casting in bronze of a replica of a Shakespeare memorial statue which the Australian sculptor had made for India. The negotiations went on until in July of 1911 the old journalist slipped oii a wet path in the wood at the back of his house at Wahroonga, and fell heavily, breaking an ankle, which led to his sudden death from heart failure on August 4, 1914, the day of the beginning of the Great War. The ladies of Mr. Gullett’s family, notwithstanding the war, resolved to carry out their father’s plan, and Mr. Mackennal found time to continue work connected with the Shakespeare memorial statue, though his commissions and other engagements were heavy. It appealed to him to be represented in Sydney by a work of this type, and lie entered very thoroughly into the spirit of the undertaking. But the war imposed many difficulties and delays. However, at last the marble pediment was cut and polished in Italy, and the bronze figure of Shakespeare and the five subordinate bronze figures at the base— Falstaff, Hamlet, Portia, Romeo, and Juliet —were cast in London, and shipped to Sydney, where they have remained in store for a twelvemonth or more awaiting the preparation of the site. After long consideration, a committee appointed by the Fuller Government decided to assign a place for the statue in the circular sweep between the Garden Palace Grounds and the Mitchell Library, at the hilltop where the long figtree avenue descends to Wooloomooloo. It is a high spot, with noble views, and no more commanding position could nave been chosen. At its side the endless traffic of Macquarie Street flows, and all day the children pour into the Gardens, on the one hand, and the few students go and come to the Mitchell Library, on the other. And with his face to the sea Sliakespeare stands, an Englishman still among his English, and a citizen of Sydney in Elizabethan trunk hose and doublet. Cut into th? marble of the plinth are two inscriptions, the one stating that this is the gifr of Henry Gullet to the City of Sydney, the other consisting of the final lines of Prospero’s speech in “The Tempest,” closing with the words; "We are such stuff as dreams are made of, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.” "The Tempest,” which is thought by good authorities to be Shakespeare’s last play and to convey in many significant passages his recantation of the ribaldry of his youthful work and his adoption of the Puritan spirit then growing all over England, of which his elder and beloved daughter, Susanna Hall, was a devotee, was a favourite of Mr. Gullett’s, though he almost equally knew and loved all the greater plays. He thought that Prospero’s abjuration of sorcery, "deeper than did ever plummet sound I’ll sink my book,” was also the master spirit of our literature bidding his farewell to the idols of the stage. But Mr. Gullett was not so much concerned at any time with the merely personal aspects of Shakespeare as with the eternal relations of this profound and noble soul to the passions, the sorrows, and joys, the consolations of all humanity. Strange is it to think that on that high ridge overlooking Wulla-Mulla, where a century and more ago Mr. Commissary Palmer built his windmills to grind corn into meal for the prisoners and captives and their gaolers who were all the Sydney of those days, the Mitchell Library and the great Public Library, successor of our first collection of books in Australia, the Australian Subscription Library, now greet one another, and, apart from our local figures of Bourke and Flinders, the lonely greatness of Shakespeare among his creations broods upon a life which transcends all questions of place and time. So finally the things of the spirit come to dominate the trifles and the shadows which men pursue until the approach. of the last shadow warns them to desist. Sir Bertram Mackennal will be in Svdney soon, and, though there may be no formal dedication of the Shakespeare statue to the public, he must be gratified by the dignitv of the spot in which his work is to stand When later a mass of foliare from the trees gives a background fo the bronze and marble of his memorial it will gain in significance Two of Mackennal’s statues stand in Brisbane, memorials to the Late T I B vr nes and Hie 'ate Mr T I R'-nn the first in the V.ilicv. the second in Queen’s Garde" where once stood the first Anglican Pro- r 'atbedral r> r St Tok" Strancelv enough, both these distin mtished men died in mid-life of pneumonia.

Tn "The Chechahcos," a Master picture, a camera and stage staff of forty men and women buried themselves for six months in the heart of the frozen north to make this drama human and real. The Rev. Beach "The Goose Woman,” a Universal Jewel attraction, is announced for early release. . The leading role is taken by Jack Pickford.

Hoot Gibson plays the part of the hero in the Universal Jewel production, “The Calgary Stampede,” which will be here shortly.

In "Sporting Life,’! which will be shown shortly, the leading role is taken bv Bert Lvttel. By the way, "Kid’ Lewis, the English welter-weight champion, appears in the cast.

“The Man on the Box,” writ Harold McGrath, has been filmed for Master pictures with Syd. Chaplin as the hero.

John Barrymore is starred in the Master picture “The 'Sea Beast.”

Flow a horse can rescue his master from being lynched is one of the dramatic moments of “All Around Frying Pan,” Fred Thomson’s latest Master picture production. In signing a contract •to star in “Barce, Son of Kazan,” a Master picture, Anita Stewart has returned to her first love, the old Vitagraph. Like many other picture celebrities, Miss Stewart had her start with that company, and it was under the Vitagraph - banner that she rose to fame. Pat Hartigan, famous for his screen villainism, is the the village bully, Janber Miles, in the Master picture “Below the Line.” Rex, the wild horse, starred by Hal Reach, in “Black Cyclone,” a new Master picture of Nevada hill countrv, is described as a line example of a mag nificent beast, viciously tempered >' earlv influences, being redeemed >' kindness and made to serve a wortn while purpose in life. <

It is claimed for “Sally of the Sawdust,” a D. W Griffith production now showing at the De Luxe T hcatre, that its distinction rests on its lovable characters. for its quick treads of exciting action, for its pathos, and its humour, and for its general entertainment, y C. Fields and Carol Dempster plav the chief roles, and the story, which is one -of circus life, is said to rank, ni its own way,' with the two previous Griffith productio: s of “The Bird l of a Natlc.-.’ imd ‘Way Down East.”

In "Joanna” (First National), Dorothy Mackaill plays the title role, that of a poor dress model who suddenly finds a million dollars at her disposal to spend as she pleases. One of Uie big musical attractions of the year will be the Russian Cossack Choir, which is to tour Australia and New Zealand under the direction of Messrs. E. J. and Dan Carroll. Mr. Leo du Chateau has already booked a tour for this combination, which, it is promised, will set a new standard for choral singing at this end of the world.

Priscilla Dean is the heroine in the Master picture “The Crimson Runner.”

"The Call of Courage,” a Universal Western attraction, starring Art Acord, will be here shortly.

Pauline Starke and Edward Hearne have the leading roles in the Fox production, “As no Man has Loved, to screen at the De Luxe Theatre at the beginning of April. The Success of “The Silver Fox in Australia and New Zealand by Laurence Grossmith induced that, popular actor to choose the same vehicle for. his reentry into London. “But,” writes Mr. Ilarrv Cohen to Mr. Leo du. Chateau, “despite a wonderful first night, the thrashing the critics gave it in the Press on Moirlav morning quite settled its chances mid it farcwclled on

the second Saturday night ( to £35. Fancy £35 on a Saturday night in Loudon. The Press is some power in London.” However, the financing syndicate, for which Mr. Cohen is acting as general manager, switched over to “The Ghost Tram,” which was at once an outstanding success that outstripped the capacity of St Marin’s, ami iiad to be transferred. to the Garrick Mr. Cohen Is negotiating with Messrs. E. J. and Dan Carroll for the Australasian rights.

“TEDDY" ROYCE PASSES

“Teddy” Rovce.—Many interesting recollections of a bygone chapter oi theatrical history in Australia are recalled by the cabled announcement ot the death of “Teddy” Royce He spent five or six years of the most important years of his life in Australia, during which he established his recovery from a serious illness which had kept him entirely off the stage from 1881 to his appearance in Melbourne in the burlesque "Little Jack Sheppard,” in October, 1886. Born at Eversholt, Bedfordshire, as long ago as August 11, 1841, he began his career as a dancer in "Ln Ballo in Maschera” at Covent Garden in 1860. He then became of note as a harlequin, and while thus employed at the York Theatre saved the life of a little girl whose fairy skirts were on fire, and was decorated by a Royal Society of that period for his courage. Royce made his name as a comedian by creating the character of Tom Cobb in W. S. Gilbert’s comedy of that title at the St. James’s Theatre, and for several years was one of the principal and most popular of the artists who figured from 1876 till 1881 at the London Gaiety Theatre, as “the Famous Four —a group completed by Nellie Farren, Edward Terrv, and Kate Vaughan.. When Rovce met Miss Farren on this side with the Fred Leslie cast, he was no longer with these artists, having been engaged by the Brough-Boucicault Company for the role of Blueskm, ill which he made his Sydney debut at the Criterion on Mav 28, 1887, with FannyRobina (as Jack Sheppard , Robert Brough, Emma Temple, W. Warde (a famous dancer), i and other artists. Of. its kind the production formed an epoch-marking event in this country, and is still remembered with pleasure. Rovce took a farewell benefit at the Criterion on September 20, 1888, when he appeared as Tom Dibbles m Buckstone’s “Nan the Good or Nothing, with his old friend Miss Farren in the name-part. This character was largely infused with pathos, and was so admirablv presented that had- Miss Farren left Svdnev without playing it she would ’have''taken half her reputation as an actress with her, instead of leaving behind her the recollection of an artistic and complete performance of a quasisentimental nature. The programme was remarkable, and £2OO were realised bv it. It also included the second act of “The Arabian Nights farcical comedy,” by the Brough-Bou--cicault Company, and Harry St. M au T> a scene from “Lights o London by Mr. and Mrs. George Rignold and company; a general medley of selections bv the Farren and Fred Leslie group; and the Cave of Harmony, scene with Royce as Blueskm. In 1891 the comedian appeared aa irascible Fizleton at the Garrick Theatre (now the Tivoli), in "Nita’s First. . n 1892 he was seen at Her Majesty s once more as Blueskin, with Harry Shine and Billie Barlow in the cast. In the same' year he was at the criterion as Sir Oliver, with Mrs. Bernard Beere as Ladv Teazle, and J. F. Cathcart as Sir Peter; as Sir Harcourt Courtly in “London Assurance, with Mrs Beere, Herbert Standing, Marius, T 'F Cathcart, and Henrietta Watson in the long cast. Mr. Royce also appeared as Tony Lumpkin; and on Tulv 6, 1892, was accorded a second farewell benefit, by which he netted £250. Cousin Joe, in “A Rough Diamond,” was his principal contribution, and Mrs. Beere’s London company, the Royal Comic Opera Company, and a,ll the leading artists of the day assisted. , . , , r r> Returning to England with Mrs. Bernard Beere’s party, Royce continued regularly at work until appropriately cast as Age in “Everywoman’ at Drury Lane Theatre in 1912. A year later he was in “Sealed Orders” at the same house, aynd while entering the stage door slipped and dislocated his shoulder. The American comedian Hale Hamilton was playing the role of Cagliostro in the drama at the time, and while at the Sydney Criterion in 1916 related to Mr. G. Marr Thompson an anecdote illustrative of the septuagenarian comedian’s courage and activity. Mr. Hamilton witnessed the accident, and as soon. as he came to a sufficiently long “wait” drove rapidly round to Charing Cross Hospital to pay the injured veteran a bedside visit. What was his astonishment to be told by the matron that "Mr. Rovce had had his shoulder set, and had’walked back to his dressingroom so as to be in time for his part as Old Alf.” Mr. Royce continued in regular work for a few years longer, and appeared in 1917 as Gaspard in “Les Cloches de Corneville” at Portsmouth. The Australian stage possesses in John Wallace an able comedian, dancer, and producer, who was at the London Gaiety and. the London Opera Comique in 1874, in the day’s when “Teddy” Rovce was making his name at the first theatre as Don Whiskerandos in ‘The Critic.” -Mr. Wallace, who has played scores of comic opera characters in his day, and is still active as a producer, was born in London only one month after Mr. Royce.

After touring the capitals of the Commonwealth and New Zealand, Mr. Allan Wilkie followed his usual practice of enjoying ki brief vacation, and on Boxing Night' he opened his new season, at the Hobart Theatre Royal in “The School for Scandal.” Playgoers will be glad to learu that Lorna Forbes has rejoined, aud there are one or two new people, notably John Cairns, an actor from England/ Dulcie Cherry has been engaged,' and in Alathea Siddons (Lady Sueerwell) will be recognised under a change of name the amateur who pleased when with the Sydney University Dramatic Society and the Players Club. Hobart is crowded this year, and the company was able to fill in the first two weeks of their season before opening their Shakespearian campaign. “She Stoops to Conquer” was put up for the last two nights of 1925, aud the first piece of the New Year was “The Rivals,” followed by that thrilling melodrama “The Bells.” This play does not quite fill the evening, so it was preceded by Oscar Wilde’s “A Florentine Tragedy,” in order to give scope to Miss Hunter-Watts as Blanca On January 0 “Measure for Measure” formed an important addition to the Shakespearian treasury. It has never been "requently performed. Professor Henry Morlev docs not mention it in a list running from 1851 to IS6G, and the late Dutton' Cooke has nothing to say about it between 1867 and 1881. This is not the occasion on which to pursue investigation further, beyond saying that more of the poet’s plays were staged in that period than during the one which followed. A few days later Tasmanians (at any rate of the rising generation) saw for the first time “Two Gentlemen of Verona” (January 13). It will be remembered that there are two nairs of lovers therein. Proteus and Julia 'Claude Saunders and Miss HunterWatts). and Valentine and Silvia (Ellis r rving and Lorna Forbes). Allan Wilkie appeared as the rustic Launce, bodv -ervant to Proteus, a comic character re’oicin" in the possession of his trood ’o" Crnb “The Tnminn of the Shrew.” “The Merchant of Venice," “Romeo and Tuliet,” and “Hamlet” (January 20) have carried on this interesting season with complete success.

Metro-Goldwyn’s production, “The White Sister,” is coming back to Wellington at the Queen’s Theatre, commencing on Good Friday, April 2. It is said that this picture has been accorded a good reception everywhere, and its return will enable those who could not see it previously to do so now. The book is by F. Marion Crawford, and the setting is in Italy. During the picture Vesuvius is shown in eruption. “The White Sister,” by the way, is George Eliot’s "Komola.”

Of “Pygmalion,” which has been chosen as the first play to be presented by the National Repertory 'theatre Society (Incorporated) at Wellington, its author, Mr. Bernard Shaw, writes in his preface: “I wish to boast that 'Pygmalion* has been an extremely successful plav all over Europe and North America, as well as at Home. It is so intensely and deliberately didactic that I delight at throwing it at the heads of the wiseacres who repeat the parrot cry that art should never be didactic. 'lt goes to prove my contention that art should never be anything else.” Mr. Leo du Chateau will produce “Pvgmalion” for the society.

Alice Terry and Lewis Stone will be appearing shortly in Metro-Goldwyn’s latest production, “Confessions of a Queen,” in which romance, humour, and suspense are said to carry ■ the picture to a surprisingly dramatic conclusion.

Harold Lloyd appears in “Hot Water,” a Master picture, at the Empfess Theatre, commencing on April 9.

Shean O’Casey, whose new drama, “The Plough and the Stars,” excited a riot in the Abbey Theatre, Dublin (as reported recently in the cable messages) began writing plays only a few years ago, in the intervals of his toil as a labourer. “The Shadow of a Gunman” was the first to be accepted, in 1923. Before that lie had written three, and he has since completed three others. One of these is “The Plough and the Stars,” and another is “Juno and the Paycock,” now running m London at the Royalty Theatre. Mr. O’Casev, who writes from his own experiences and observations, has had to endure a life of poverty.. According to an interview published in the London “Observer,” his father died when he was three, and his mother brought up the family. At 14 he taught him-' self to read, and for 15 years he worked as a navvv and labourer. “The first book I bought,” he said, “was Shakespeare. I spent nearly al! my money on books.” Juno, in his London plav, is the hard-working wife of an idle

vagabond, “the Paycock,” who drinks and brags, and boasts of his being unable to find employment; and the play is a story of the misfortunes which dog tlie family, in the days when fighting was going on between the “Black and Tans” and the Republican “Die-hards.”

“Snake Bite,” Robert Hichens’s novel of two women’s battle for one man, has been transferred to the screen under the title of “The Lady Who Lied.” It is a First-National picture, and will be here in the near future.

Jackie Coogan will be seen in “file' Rag Man” when that Metro-Goldwyn picture comes to the King’s Theatre on April 2. .It is said that no picture in which he has appeared reveals so vividly his powers to evoke smiles and tears, laughter and thrills.’ The Fox picture, “The Johnstown Flood,” has arrived in New Zealand, and exhibitors arc already making inquiries for the release date. r Ims will be known

A musical-comedy, composed in Sydney by Mr. Rex Shaw, is to be produced by the Bankers’ Operatic Society, in April. The scenes of this piece, “The Radio Girl,” are laid in Sydney, at a time when the North Shore bridge is completed, five years hence. The second act passes in the Great Hall of the University, where an ensemble will, it is promised, introduce tones resembling those of the carillon. The story relates to an invention styled “ultra radio,” the plans of which aye stolen by agents of a foreign Power, but restored by the brave Jill, the “radio girl.”

“Musical comedy and revue are dropping out. The whole trend is back to the old comic opera.” That was the summing-up of Mr. James Hughes, actor, when he arrived in Sydney from the United States by the liner Tahiti to open in the new play, ‘Rose Marie.’ _ “The chorus man—the singer—is coming into his own again,” said Mr. Hughes.

A First National picture, “The Knockout,” starring Milton Sills, will be here soon.

Gne of the most attractive and interesting features of the dramatic year will be the production of several of the Barrie plays by Mr. Dion Boucicault and the new company which he has assembled in England under the management of J. C. Williamson, Ltd. The company will derive increased importance from the engagement of the well-known actress, Miss Mary Jerrold, who has had a notable career on the British stage in an extensive range of characters, in drama and modern comedy, as well as in repertory season at the Duke of York’s Theatre in 1910. One of her roles is that of Susan Throssell, in “Quality Street.” Mr. Hubert Harben, who was also in these repertory productions, and has had considerable experience on the stage in England and America, will be another of the principals, of the new company. The list of artists engaged bv Mr. Boucicault also includes the names of Miss Angela Baddeley,

Miss Sarah Dartry, Miss Betty Schuster, and Messrs. Norman MacOwan and Stephen Thomas. It. has already been announced that Miss Mary Hinton (Mrs. Pitt-Rivers) is to be one of the principals; and the fact that Mr. Brian Aherne, an English actor whose work has attracted wide attention, is to be in the casts, was.stated in this column some weeks ago. Mr. Boucicault and the new artists are now on their wav to Australia. They will begin this eventful series of performances in Melbourne on March 20 with “Quality Street.*