"YOUTH" AT THE PRINCESS'S.

Evening Star, Issue 6480, 22 December 1883, Page 2

"YOUTH" AT THE PRINCESS'S.

The combination brought to this Colony by Messrs J. F. Maodonald and Co. for the production of "Youth" and the other pieces that made the Klgnold seasons in Melbourne, Adelaide, and Sydney suoh brilliant successes, is unquestionably the strongest of its kind that has visited us. The names of J; R. Greville, H. E. Walton, W. G. Gamy, Cathcart. and F. Gates are amongst the best mown on the Australian stage; whilst at the head of the ladles Btauds Miss Flora Anßtead, long a favorite wfth audiences in this Colony, and she will receive able support from Mißses Wa*ts-PhllHps, Wooldridge, Living, stone, and Ftteroy, whilst Mrs Wooldildge ;1» admittedly la the front sank as an exponent of "old women" characters. "Youth is to be, produced on the stage of the Princess's on the same scale of oomnleteneßs as It was given in Melbourne. The •'Scenery is from the brush of John Eeunings. who Is faoiMs princeps amongst scene-painters in the colonies, and whose creations invariably excite admiration; and the appointments generally are in Keeping with the mounting, which 1b on an elaborate scale. "Youth" ran for ten weeks in Melbourne and for eight weeks in Sydney and Adelaide; and the management, relying on having kept faith with the publio in respeot of producing fcho pieoo, strongly cast, mounted with little regard to expense, and the elaborate mechanism of the piece as complete as the most efficient stage carpenters and the resources of the theatre can make it, anticipate that their seasons in fine New Zealand towns will be proportionately snocesafnl. With the object of adding to the comfoit of their patrons, Messrs Macdonald and Company inform us that the interior of the theatre Is to be thoroughly cleaned, and the several entrances are to reoeivs attention. We expect to see the theatre crowded with a thorough holiday audience on Boxing night.

We subjoin a short sketch of the drama j—"Youth" fs tha joint production of Messrs Menitt and Harris, and had a successful career ia London. The principal male character, Frank Darlington, Is that of a young man of a generous nature but of weak self-control. His atumbUng-blook is the very common one of a woman, a French woman in this instance, whom he lo»ea "not wisely but too well." Like many other women, she deceives him, taking his money and bestowing it on another man. who paoves to be mean, selfish, sordid, and criminal. The criminal direction of this man's mind Is shown by his forcing a bill and successfully fastening the crime upon his friend, the • Frenchwoman's viotim. The innocent man it tried and sent to prison, but hj« Is subsequently liberated as the acknowledgment of hi* bravery in preserving a warder from the murderous attack of a desperate oonvict, Let out once more into the society of free men. but with the taint of crime on him, he neglects to report himself to

the authorities, and, in the desperation of his misfortune, enlists as a common soldier in the regiment where once he was an officer. His ilifortune still pursues him, but his friends do not forsake him, and he is saved from arrest at the moment when he is embarking for India to fight the Afghans, The play ends with an eogagettwnt between some beleagured English troops and* multitude, of these dark-skinned people. Several persons are killed, including the villian} and the, innocence" of the hero ia made mdispttfcabjly clear." Altogether thefe are,, t#o doSen principal characters ih the gpiecfc, In addition to the soldiers, the convicts, the warders, the sailors, the villagers, and others. When "Youth" was originally produced In the colonies, something like eighteen months ago, Mr Rignold was supported by the following members of Mr Maodonald's company:—Miss Flora Anstead, Messrs Walton, Oathcart, and Greville, - ••>*