MIMES AND MUSIC,

Evening Post, Volume LXVIII, Issue 128, 26 November 1904, Page 13

MIMES AND MUSIC,

[By Orpheus.]

COMING EVENTS. OI'KHA HOUSE. Woods-Williamson, 10th December to 17th December. J. C. Williamson, Boxing Night to 14th January. THEATRE HOYAI,. Dbc Gaiety Company. HIS MAJESTY'S THEATRB. Fuller's Entertainers. According to a cable sent to an American journal Mr. Pinero's puppet play at Wyndham's Theatre, "A Wife Without a SmiJe," was misunderstood by the audience and the critics, and Mr. G. Redford, Examiner of Plays, has felt impelled to repudiate the suggestion that there is any nastiness in the situation. The innuendoes of the critics and the coarse laughter of the foul-minded people in the audience may advertise the play, but will more likely bring about its withdrawal. Mr. Pinero's work, while clever in construction, with many witty passages, contains subtle satire at the expense of playgoers who do not want serious drama and are amused by silly toy's and dolls full of sawdust. This sardonic' pleasantry is not carried over the footlights. The dazed spectators prefer to laugh' over "the dancing doll." Mr. Kyrle Bellew is contemplating a professional visit to Australia, but it will not be until after next year. The Canadian correspondent of Sydney Telegraph writes: — "Kyrle Bellew, dignified, but not as cold as some big people on the American stage, came to Vancouver on Bth October, and talked of his Australian experiences. 'You don't get the enthusiasm hi northern countries that you do in southern,' he said. 'Australia is different, though, from all. In point of enthusiasm, an Australian audience is unlike any other in the world. They are very fair there, and will treat you well. They receive all alike, whether they be at the top or bottom of the profession. But it is conditional after that as to whether they like you. They receive you, but you must make good. I never saw such theatre-goirfg people as are to be found in Australia. Naturally, I prefer the great drama — most actors do that — but it would not do for an actor to follow his own inclinations on the stage. He must give what the, public wants, if one asks for an egg for breakfast, would one expect to receive a beefsteak?' Mr. Bellew stated that arrangements had been made for him to go to London to play there next spring." Mr. J. C. Williamson is forming a special company for Gilbert and Sullivan revivals in Sydney, the experiment having proved successful in Melbourne. Miss Florence Young will make her farewell appearance in these works, as after the season the favourite prima donna leaves Australia. Mr. Howard Vernon returns after a long absence to resume some of his best impersonations in "Patience," "Yeomen of the Guard," and others of the series. Mr. Charles Kennmgham will be the tenor, and a new baritone from one of the D'Oyley Carte companies, a Mr. Wilson, is- coming out from England for these revivals. Mr. Alfred Dampier is now at work upon a dramatic version of Steele Rudd's "Our Selection." The new Australian play may be produced during the actorauthor's present stay in Adelaide, or it may be the feiiture of his Sydney season next year. The Times criticism of Mrs. BrownPotter and "The Golden Light" is wither'ingly' severe. The journal says:— "Mrs. Brown-Potter is a beautiful woman, who knows how to choose and how to wtear beautiful frocks and beautiful hats. Consequently it is a delicate refreshment to all persons of taste merely to sit still in their stalls contemplating Mrs. -BrownPotter. Unfortunately Mrs. Brown-Pot-ter is not content to offer the public this simple refreshment of contemplation. She si\rround3 her beauty and her frocks and her hats with what the programme somewhat indulgently calls a play. It is not a play which we can bring ourselves to commend. Indeed, we find it difficult to understand how Mrs. Brown-Potter, with her unerring judgment in the selection of frocks and hats, can have been co injudicious as to choose for her venture at the Savoy so feeble a) work as 'The Golden Light.' It is a play for almost incredible banality and lifelessness. Mrs. BrownPotter seems incapable of presenting passion, incapable of presenting anything save graceful posturps and artistic drapery. She never speaks ; she chants in a hollow monotone. The audience did not attempt- to conceal its impatience with ■the play and its players." Mrs. Patrick Campbell presented in Washington recently for the first time in English on any stage, Sardou's drains, "The Sorceress." She was given a warm welcome. Mrs. Campbell (says an American critic) was -less pleasantly the centre of attraction in New York a few days ago, appearing in daylight on Broadway in a combination walking-suit and evening gown. According to accounts, "the bodice was cut out both in front and back in the shape of the letter V, and not even a feather boa hid the expanse of white shou.der. The skirt was elaboratelyflounced, and was short." Mrs. Campbell was accompanied by her daughter and her dog, Pinkey Pankey Poo, who had donned for the occasion a fur mantle. The Campbells and the dog visited a Broadway shop, where Mrs. Campbell's costume attracted much attention. They next went to a candy store, where the dog was fed with walnut creams. A crowd had followed them, and when they emerged they were surrounded by a curious mob, mostly women. In desperation, Mrs. Campbell summoned a carriage, in which she and her daughter and her dog escaped. Stage-struck young women should be interested in what Mrs. Patrick Campbell thinks of her profession. Mra. Campbell has told an interviewer that her daughter would never go on the stage with her consent. Miss Campbell ia a beautiful young lady, having the same "expressive and mysterious eyes as her mother." The views of the London press on Mr. Pinero's new play, "A Wife Without a Smile," are very conflicting. Here are some of them : — Mr. Pinero calls his new play a comedy in disguise. Disguise seems to us the least appropriate of all words for the occasion. Comedy in deshabille would have ocen nearer the mark. — The Times. The merriest, maddest piece of work which Mr. Pinero has done since he wrote "The Magistrate" and "The Cabinet Minister."— Daily Telegraph. Mr. Pinero has lost his old lightness of touch, and, we must add, some of his old deliqacy of perception. — Pall Mall Gazette, The most valuable tonic that the enervated British playgoer could possibly assimilate. — Daily Mail. Hardly a play of which Mr. Pinero need bo proud. — Daily News. It was, like all Mr. Pinero's work, admirably put together, piece fitted to piece, angle to angle, square to square, liko the deftest bit of elaborate But, for the majority, it seemed to be, according to the old phrase, too clever by half. — Daily Telegraph. London will bo deeply pained at this outrage on its finer feelings, and will declare that the cordial intent is all very well, but the double intent is best left^ on tho other side of the Channel. Incidentally there will be standing room only at Wyndham's.—

Evening News. Mr. Pinero's new play is a disappointment.— Morning Post. Infinitely diverting.— Daily Graphic. The long-protracted cause celebre — Slapoffski v. Musgrove — has at last been settled, and the principals have shaken hands and are fast friends again (says Melbourne Table Talk). The settlement involves the abandonment by Herr Slapoffski of the fruits of the verdict which Madame Slapoffski obtained in the Supreme Court, and the return of Herr Slapoffski to the conductor's chair, under the management of Mr. George Musgrove. The lawyers are those who smile best, becanse their Bmile lasts — for the others "All's well that ends well." Tag —"God bless Captain Cook and George Musgrove." In New York, Arnold Daly is presenting as a double bill two of Bernard Shaw's plays— "A Man of Destiny" and "How She Lied to Her Husband." This last is entirely new, and is in the nature of "Candida" reversed. The wife in it is humdrum, and is besieged by a Eugenelike poet, who dedicatee his Swinburnian verses to her. Not understanding either poets or poetry, they alarm hep. So she, fearful of her husband's wrath, beseeches the poet to tell the husband that they were not dedicated to her, but to another of Tier name. On being told this, the husband becomes angry because his wife is not considered by the poet suffi* cient inspiration for his muee, and tells him that she is charming enough to captivate any man. Then the poet confesses the truth, and the husband apologises. The wife remains totally bewildered. The Sun says that "nothing except a visit to the theatre can give any idea of the delicious humour, the exquisite satire, the profound contempt for Weak human nature, and the telling lines which Mr. Shaw has poured into his character study. Those who know 'Candida' will see at once where the author has made fun of his own former admirable creation." Theatrical Clips. — Mark Hambourg is again in London, and attracting increased notice. Apparently he is following up the marked success of his Continental tour. . . Sam Sothern is appearing hi London jts Lord Dundreary at the Vaudeville Theatre in an up-to-date impersonation in "The Catch of the Season." His father's great success in the % part was in "Our American Cousin"at the Haymarket Theatre, in which play the part was originally only 47 lines hi length. The late Mr. Sothern re-wrote it, and built it up until it made the central character. . . During Cup Week "The Urchid" drew £500 more than anything staged by Mr. Williamson for ten years past, and it continues to run strongly. . . The Jean Gerardy Concert Company has just concluded a successful South African tour, under the management of B. and F. Wheeler, lessees of half a dozen of the principal theatres in that part of the world. . . Edwin Geach has been annexed by J. C. Williamson as business manager of the Williamson Comedy Company in Western Australia. . . Fred Mitlis, the clever ventriloquist, is returning to the colonies under engagement to Harry Rickards, and leaves England next month. . It is understood that the reorganised Jubilee Singers, who have received considerable addition to their numbers from the land of the coon and cotton, will visit N"ew Zealand at an early date. . . "You English," says a German correspondent of the Daily Express, "go to the theatre to be amused. You leave your imaginations and your intellects at home. Your theatres are the last course of your dinners." . . "I doubt not," said Sir Henry Irving at Cardiff, "that by-and-by every great city will have its own theatre built by its own munici; pality — a theatre for the encouragement of a drama in which the arts of poetry, music, and painting blend — a drama which affords a delightful recreation, if nothing more — the most intellectual recreation the, mind of man has yet , conceived." . . In boston a new tragedy by the poet Aldrich has been^-put into rehearsal by Nance O'Neill. . mated that D'Arcy Hyland circus proprietor, contemplates retiring from the Bhow business at an early date and settling down in the Taihape district. . . The leading part in "L'Aiglon," played by Tittell Brune, in Sydney, is said to be the longest ever written for a wpman. . 0. Hoggie, well krrown in New Zealand from his connection with the popular Hawtrey Comedy Company, is now a member of J. C. Williamson's Comedy Company. . . Brothers De Wynne were at the Bordesley Palace starring when the mail left London. . . ' Chas. Sweet, the "Musical Burglar," is at the London Empire. . . Grace Noble was appearing in "Quality Street" at the Borough, Stratford, when the mail left London. . . The Iroquois iheatre, in Chicago, where the terrible fire occurred last December, has been re-open-ed as a vaudeville house. At the first performance the house (according to an exchange) was filled with an audience that was apparently unaffected by any recollection of the great catastrophe of last year. Thousands of citizens signed petitions against the re-opening, but to no avail. . . Essie Jenyns occupied a box at Her Majesty's THeatre on Saturday night to witness Tittell Brune's performance as Juliet — her own favourite part when she was the idol of Australia. . . Paderewski is stated to have made £20,000 out of his Australian tour. . . Lydia Yeamans and her husband sailed from Liverpool recently by the White Star liner Runic for Australia. . . George Mnsgrove's "Belle of New York" Company has ousted drama from its great stronghold, the Pavilion Theatre, Mile-End, where a "farewell visit" is to be paid, with Beatrice Lamotte in the title-part, and Frank Lawton, of whistling fame, in his original role. . . It is said that Walter Baker some twenty years ago got £25 reward for chasing a burglar four miles through the bush at Dap to, and effecting his capture. Though he is a deal older and stouter, he could do the same feat now if called upon. Continuous pursuit of Albert Norman througii tne wilderness of a five-act drama does a lot to keep Baker in condition. . . Latest American files report that Joseph Jefferson has retired from the stage, owing to ill-health. The Australian friends of the veteran will wish him a. speedy recovery. . . . John F. Sheridan was producing "The Girl from Venus" at the Good Hope Theatre, Capetown, when the South African mail left. The combination is still entirely Australian,- and has not undergone any change since leaving hare. . . Ben Linden, who has been acting as stage manager for the past two years for the Woods-Williamson company, severed his connection with that company at the end of the Auckland season, and joins William Anderson's Dramatic Company, which opens at Dunedin on Boxing Night. . . Tom Woottwell has returned from South Africa to London. He appears in the Drury Lane panto, at Christmas. . . Duse, it is again reported, is really thinking of retiring from the stage, after making a farewell tour to all tho places where she has once been seen.

"That's Mrs. Marrimuch, the society leader," explained the man who knew. "My, you don't say?" replied the plebeian ; "she's in half mourning, isn't she?" "Yes. You see, three of her six husbands are dead." "Majoi," she asked, looking anxiously up into the bronzed face of the soldier, "did you ever ha,ve a horse shot under you or were you ever separated from your men and surrounded by Indians?" ".No," he replied; "but I've been on the streets of Chicago alone at midnight." Stranger : " When will the next train be along 1" Native : "It ain't u-comin' along. It's just went past."