THEATRE ROYAL.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 4836, 9 February 1887, Page 3

THEATRE ROYAL.

Despite the unfavorable -weather last evening there was a good audience to wit- ' ness the second productiou of "Puck Those who missed the performance of "Puck" will hnvo cause to regret not, haviu" witnessed one of the finest dramas ever presented on" the Napier stage. Miss Wade at once constituted herself a favorite with the am.ience, who manifested their appreciation of her performance of Avice lliro by repeated applause. Mr Allcyne as Ben Dare was all at home in his character, •md as on the previous evening, had to re-roond, iv conjunction with other members of the company,-to a vociferous recall. MrG P Carey's" "seven words' amused the audience considerably, and his queer quotations and gestures were exceedingly miinvffl Mr Beaumont Lord Boltran), STcfcUtt (Berry Donzil) Mr AVhite (Dick O'Wynnats), and Miss Hill (Gladys Gerant), Miss Alston (Nellie) did what was required of them creditably, and those present were well re-paid for having come in such weather to witness "luck. This evening "The Great Pink Pearl' will be staged. This piece has had a good run, and been always wellreceivcd wherever it ins been produced, so there should bo a o-oodhpuse at the Theatre Royal this evening to witness its production. The following is the plot of the piece " Ihe Proat Pink Pearl," a farcical comedy in ttee aett writted by EC. Carton and Cecil Bnlcigh. Like the "Engaged" of Mr W S Gilbert, the humor consists 01 the profound seriousness with which the most ridiculous incidents are narrated Hie situations at the close of the first and second facts are said to be ludicrously enjoyable. ' -■• This " pearl of great price is the property of the Princess Peninkofi, of Russia, who, desirous of raising money for purposes of her own, and unknown to her husband, proposes to sell it, and forwards a commisSon to this effect to a Mr Sheen, a very woalthy fancier of such trifles, and requests him to meet her for the purpose at- the Grand Hotel, Paris. The existence of this wealthy "Sheen" is however, kept a mystery to the audience till the end of the piece; and it is on this point that the whole of the fun turns, since, by some mistake of the Princess's blundering Russian servant, the missive is brought to another man of the name of Sheen, an impecunious journalist who has just been formed by Mrs Shawns, his landlady through her maid-of-al -work Jessie, that unless he can "pay up "by the end of the week she will have to walk him off. Sheen's meditations are interrupted by the intrusion of another lodger in the house one Patriccio Gormani, alia* Patrick 0 Gorman, an Irish adventurer. Sheen is about to say he knows nothing of pearls or princesses, when ut a sign from Gormani he consents to undertake the task under the instructions from the Ccltac-Kruwiun; and. tliey are about to set off for Pans em a pawnbroker's shop when enters George Lillicarp, a sheriff's officer, with a writ ol j, p tor Sheen at the suit of his tailor. This Liliicarp gives, the funniest turn to the piece, not by what he does himself but what he ie made to do by others. Aud the tableau of this act is a striking ono. Behold them both at Paris doing the grand at the Grand "X Hotel Sheen goes in for the millionaire \Srness, with the Irish-Russian as his secretary. Hither comes also Mary . Turner who, though a modest modiste in the establishment of one of the -rcat Parisian Worths of the day, is the beloved and betrothed of Sheen, the paragraphist. In the midst of a love-scone enters the waiter, whispering that tho .princess is coinhi" Confusion ensues. Ihe "Great Pink Pearl " business is progressing tairly, when who should come on the scene but the Princess's jealous husband, Prince Paul Peninkoff ; but before any* explanation or even entanglement can ensue, who should come in at the wrong-right moment but our old friend the bailiff in search of his prey (like Japhet after his father), whom he had tracked hither. But he is at once denounced as a plotter and conspirator agamst the peace of the great Russian Czar, and he is marched off to durance vile. " Muddlcby Junction" is reached, when it is announced that the "Great Pink Pearl "-ior which ■ even monarchs have sighed in yam-is missing. Glorious tableau and general discomfiture of the three leading characters. Away—i« act the 'third—to the Russian Embassy in Paris ; a handsome room, with i oak carvings aud pillars to match, and be--1 fitting the meeting-house of secret.police, spies, secretaries, etc., ulα JJ«w*. Here we are introduced to a new character, quite ' promiscuously like-a hanger on at the Embassy, and a cousin of Prince Paul, one Count Serge Kcromine, a very silent young ~ontlemau° but with a very humorous turnof mind. Hither, too, comes (torcportprogrcss, of course, as they always do) a remarkable creature, one Valovitch, a Russian spyV to tells the Prince that the captured archis not the dreadful conspirator and ~ internal machine maker, Patneoio&orimmi, but a poor a simple Engl, shman-thebaih of course-and that the " Great Pmk Pearl" had been found in his possession, having been given him by Sheen (to get rid ot him ana his fic-fio-fi-fa) who had received it from the Princess, she mistaking-him tor the other Sheen. • Here a really fine bit of dramatic playing ensues. The Pnnce, mad with jealousy, accuses the Princess of everythin"- horrible, points to the empty pearlcasket in proof of his assertions, and finally threatens to blow everyone up by means of one of Gormam's captured infernal machines. But Mary Turner manages to set everything right. Gormani, who is, after all, innocent enough, is pardoned; Sheen and Mary are happy ; and Mr Lilly - carp, the poor ill-used baihft, whn is made to bear the brunt of all the. rrutahty, is set free, very glad to escape from such an infernal machine of a place as 1 arts.