PRINCESS’S THEATRE.

Evening Star, Issue 6862, 27 March 1886, Page 2

PRINCESS’S THEATRE.

The performance of “ In the Ranks ” last night was in aid of the South Dunedin Fire Brigade and Caversham Brass Band, and, despite the unfavorable weather, there was a very largo attendance. The play was received with undiininished favor, and the principals were called before the curtain, “ In the Ranks ” will be presented for the last time to-night. “Confusion,” a comedy of recent construction, by Joseph Derrick, will be produced for the first time in New Zealand on Monday. It was first played in London at the Vaudeville Theatre in May, ISSd, and held the boards there for over 500 nights. By recent London files wc note that it has been re-produced there. The play has merits all its own, and which force themselvcs into acknowledgment. The points are numerous, the dialogue brisk, the situations cleverly couceiml, and the whole piece brilliant. The “confusion” is all caused by the introduction into a rather peculiarly-conditioned household of a little pug dog and a baby. Owing to circumstances over which the principals have little or no concern, a perplexing mystery hangs around these ; and, as messages and documents concerning each of these are continually being mistaken for allusions to the other, the complications increase rather than diminish as the play goes on. The characters in the comedy are only released from one fix to find themselves neck-deep in anothes, and the situations are so absurd, and withal so funny, that audiences sure at times fairly convulsed with laughter. Miss Kate Bishop played in the original cast on its first production in London, “ Confusion ” has been as great a success in Australia as elsewhere. For eleven weeks in Melbourne it drew crowded houses ; in Sydney, Adelaide, and Brisbane immense audiences testified their appreciation of this highly-diverting eccentric comedy; and it has now reached its 200tb performance in Australasian colonies.