A PICTURESQUE CAREER.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 25, 31 January 1911, Page 11

A PICTURESQUE CAREER.

MR. F. B. SHARP. In hk time Mr. F. B. Sharp has played many part on and off the stage. Wellington has known him as a lawyer and a valuable helper at entertainment* (chiefly dramatical here), but London saw him on the stage before Wellington, and London will see him again, presently. Ho has joined tho Willougnby Company for the New Zealand season, and others, and by-and-bye he will by trekking to London. From a repertoire of golden memories about the old days in London and elsewhere, Mr. Sharpe can drawn much interesting treasure. He put in a decade as an artist alternating between the drawing-room (in which he wae a professional entertainer), and the stage. "After ten solid years," he cays, "I started to read' law- and to

eat dinners' 'in London to TEne^end that I should be called to the bar. The work of the baTrkter is about the only work you could combine with acting. Even the essential dinners were arranged so early (6 p.m.) that I could walk from the dinner table to the theatre in plenty of time. I used to play this double game quite neatly without the sign of suspicion, for London is a biggish place. I usad to be amused at being invited to discuss my talents as an actor by students and barristers, who had not the slightest notion I was anything so wicked. I used to sit for an examination in law, and then take a spell of acting to cool things off."' Subsequently Mr. Sharp had plenty of playing in various combinations. One of his most strenuous achievements was on board ship, where he played three solid acts of a farce.