« THE FIRM'B " DRAMATIC $EASON.

Evening Post, Volume LVI, Issue 154, 28 December 1898, Page 5

« THE FIRM ' B " DRAMATIC $EASON.

«. The fascinating character of Mr. Wilson Barrett's great play, "The Sign of the Cross," drew another immense audience to the Opera House last night, and so it will probably continue to do while the short season lasts. There are few plays which appeal more to human feeling, or to a greater section of the community, for apart from its purely dramatic and picturesque interest, it conveys deeper impressions That it is exceedingly daring in parts no one disputes, but singularly enough the lude scenes harmonise so perfectly with the rest and, moreover, are so delicately handled by those concerned, that they appear to be quite a natural sequence of events. The play in the hands of the present company* moves with clocklike regularity and smoothness. Very fine are the passages between Marcus and Berenis when the latter declares her passion for the handsome Prefect, and finding herself scorned decides upon her course of action ; the revels at the house of Marcus, and the daring scene that follows and closes the act ; the short acquaintance witn the character of Nero, and the particularly fine scene of Marcus's intercession on behalf of Mercia at the throne of Nero, which exhibits some artistic work on the part of Mr. Knight and Mr. Ward ; and ths great ending to the play where Marcus and Mercia, happy in each other's love, go hand in hand "into the light beyond. The incidental music is excellently rendered, and a word of praise may be given Miss North for her tuneful singing of a verse or two of song in the revel scene. "Harbour Lights" will form the bill for next Monday night, and the box plan \ prill be open at Holliday's to-morrow.