GRAND OPERA HOUSE.

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 51, 5 March 1929, Page 5

GRAND OPERA HOUSE.

'Slnco the opening night at the Grand Opera House wtlh,their talented company. Miss Irene Vanbrugh and Mr. Dion Bouclcault have added considerably ;to \ their great popularity. They have captivated. . Their latest production, "Belinda," A.;A. Milne's three-act play, was enthusiastically received on Saturday night, and again last > evening, by a large audience. The piece sparkles with clever comedy and smart dialogue, and the utmost Is made of the many interesting situations that occur. As a frivolous and flirtatious 1 wife of a loug-lost husband,, who in the end Is • discovered again, Miss 'Vanbrugh has ;a very congenial role. Her Belinda Tremayno is a. most human person—one who simply lias ovcryone with her all tho time. Mr. Boucicault was slightly indisposed last evening,' and did not appear, the part of tho prim and proper Harold Baxter being taken by Mr. Leslie Victor, who handled it very successfully. Miss Rowcna Ronald as Delia, daughter of the pseudo-widow, has ample opportunity to display her talents, and Mr. Ronald Ward, who takes the .part of Claude Devenish, a co-wooer with Baxter of Belinda until her husband (pleasantly portrayed by J. B. Rowo) comes on tho scene, gives a good impression of a young and romantic poet. The play will be'repeated for tho last time this evening.

It is impossible to do even bare justice to the manner in which Mr. Bouclcault captured tlio hearts of all theatre-goers, when, on a previous tour of the Dominion, lie played A. A. Milne's original and most eccentric character, Mr. Pirn, in one of the gems of English comedy, "Mr. Pirn Passes By:" Voice, manner, make-up, his extreme desire to be of service. Ills garrulous wanderings, the victim of. a most unreliable memory, the suspicions and fear he causes by his leaving things incomplete, all go to make Mr. Pirn one of the outstanding characters of the age. And Mr. Bouclcault lives every minute of his part. In this he is helped considerably by the sympathy and charm of Irene Vanbrugh in her part. There can be no more pleasing performance to carry away a last recollection of a wonderful English actor anoV actress than "Mr. Pirn Passes By." the last picco to bo played by the Irene Vanbrugh-Dion Bouclcault Company now near the end of their really farewell tour of New Zealand. It will bo staged for the first time to-morrow night. No one should miss seeing' Dion Boucicault as "tho erect, snowy-headed little old man, with umbrella in one hand and crumpled Panama ,in tho other; eccentric, short-sighted, and absent-minded, who unconsciously causes consternation in tho family ho. In passing by, hopes to befriend." Besides tho important part"played by Irene Vanbrugh, the cast includes Mr. J. D. Rowe, Rowena Ronald, Ronald Ward, Eileen Morris, and Miss Annie Saker. , Box plans at The Bristol.