HERBERT FLEMMING.

Evening Star, Issue 12943, 5 May 1908, Page 6

HERBERT FLEMMING.

‘THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD.’ of_ the three entertainments set upon His Majesty’s stage bv Mr Herbert Flemming’s company, ‘Olivia’ is the most delightful. It must have been pleasant for every unit of last night’s large audience to wander into Goldsmith’s delicate world of realities, to have the assistance of Mr Flemming and his clever band in conjuring back the memory of those nights by the fireside which most of us have spent with gracious Dr Primrose and Mrs Primrose and Sophia and Moses and Olivia—Olivia, the lamb for whose undoing the pasture fence was broken that night the gipsy whispered: “ Your pasture fence is broke, and there is a lamb upon the road. I riend, look to it!” The old man setting forth with his staff, the finding of the lamb, the tardy remorse of the pasturebreaker, the joyful reunion of the family—are not these told with a sweetness and tenderness md such grace of portraiture that we can still see the figures to-day like" some masterpiece of a great Dutch painter? And in this delightful world, where men and women are well-mannered even in their emotions, where we are not always striving to escape the consciousness that the author is a little too clever, have we not yet one of the most realistic studies of the development of emotion? The acting last night reached a very high level all round. The actors were acting in the same key, like an orchestra whose instruments are tuned alike, and the setting, with its elaborate attention to detail—down to the very spinnet and the snuffers —was in accord too. All the actors were very good, but Mr Flemming as Dr Primrose was simply admirable. As soon as he stepped upon the stage one felt that he was the ideal vicar. His impersonation is an education when one comes to analyse it next day; at the moment it was just the Vicar of Wakefield. No more can be said. Miss Beatrice Day’s Olivia, too, is entitled to respect. She was, as a very young lady in front whispered, “just sweet.” In. the first act there was great restraint ; she never forced the pace, but her emotions waxed as the play developed, until in the fine scene in the third act, where Olivia discovers that the Squire has betrayed her, she raised the highest emotion by her mastery of her art. The welcome touch of humor was deftly introduced by Mr Andrew Mallalieu, the Moses of the production, by Miss Guildford Quinn, a daimty Mary Flamborough, and by Miss Nellie Mortyne, a particularly good Mis Primrose. Mr A. S. Homewood was the remorseful Squire, and Mr Winter Hall the rich Sir William Thornhill, who finally discountenances him. A word of praise is due to little Misses Molly Brennan and Stella Monkman, two Dunedin children, who were cast for Dick and Bill. And, lastly, a plaudit for the very pretty and apposite incidental music and pastoral in the first act, composed by the conductor of the orchestra, Mr Frank Eugardc. We confidently recommend ‘ Olivia ’ to all who love the best things of the theatre. The pity is that it can be produced for but one night more.