CHAUTAUQUA

Greymouth Evening Star, 25 March 1922, Page 2

CHAUTAUQUA

TESTER DA £ A FTERN 0 ON. Chautauqua patrons had a delightful afternoon yesterday. The programme consisted of music, song and story. The performers were Miss Winifred Windus, interpreter of plays; Mr. J. Alexander Lrowne, vocalist, and Mr. Guy Marriner, solo pianist. All the performers were recalled repeatedly. Mr. Marriner opened with Chopin and followed with, several pieces by Percy Grainger, the ci lebra'.ed Australian composer. He played splendidly, and his playing was much better than his monologues. Some of his selections were, “J.’alonaise” (Chopin), “Irish Airs” (arranged by Percy Grainger), “Negro Melodies, ’ “Ihe Dancing Doll m the Music Box, and “Turkey in the Straw.” His musical monologues were “Matilda,” ‘'Henry King,” and “Oh, Memory.” Mr. J. Alexander Browne possesses a. good baritone voice and sang very well. His songs were “Drake is going West,” “Friend of Aline,” “Women are Women,” “the Crown of Life, ’ “They bay,” and “Old Barty.” Miss Windus is the best performer of her class that has visited Greymouth for manv. manv years. Her recital “The Florist Shop” by Winifred Jlowkbridge, was excellent. Her recitations included “frees.” a bcautitiful poem by Joyce Kilmer, “Lily and Rose,” ami “The Glory Road.” A SUMPTUOUS I’ROGRAMATE. ]t would be dillicult to say which half of the programme at last evening’s session of “Chautauqua, was the more pleasing, but there can be no doubt that the, entertainment as a. whole was one of the finest Greymoutli has known for a long time. Eacii individual performer was highly talented and could unassisted have held. the audience as in a spell for the whole period of the programme. I'he house was packed both in the stalls and circle.

The first part of flic programme consisted of an entertainment and recital by the Winifred Windus Trio. So spirited was Air. Guy Alarum r s interpretation "Mf Schubert’s Military March that lie was compelled to appear again and again. Later be was heard in “.Dream of .Love,” and, by request, a repetition of “Turkey in Lie Straw.” In bis monologues his masten of the keyboard was wonderful ami the theme* of the monologues mad,, a popular appeal. He reciled You Can Never Tell a Woman,” and “Murders,”—in which he confisscd io the despatch of his laundress ami his mother-in-law. The line baritone voice of Mr. J. Alexander Lrowne was heard in Handl’s operatic gem, “Hear Ale. AVinds and Waves.’ J he audience insisted on repeated eiic/A and had its way. Air. ftrowne CTeated a rrreat impnssion in several eliarackr sones, and was particularly goou m “Th"e Gay Drnm-Maior” and the “Company Sergeant-Major. The least of the owning was Aliss Wmdus’s recital of Sir J. Al. Barrie’s delightful one-act play “lhe fwel'.eJ’ouml Look.” It is a sketch that requires very delicate handling, as it deals with characters as widely dixeigent as it is possible to imagine. The case with which Miss AVimhis impersonates first lhe self-complacent typist (with a past), then the meek spouse of a mushroom knight (with a future) and lastly the bombastic knight himself is simply marvellous. All through she was the sole actor, or actress, in the piece she made each character almost a reality, and the skilful manner in which she pie]).lied her hearers for the eilmax, which dees not come until the last line has been read, w<m lor her an ovation. .In response to insistent rounds of applause Aliss Windus was obliged Io deliver several recitations, and it is safe io say that she would have continued until midnight if the lecture, already greatly delayed, had not to 10l low. She gave, among other pieces, a “Frenchman’s A ersion of Adam and Eve,” and by request, repeated her afternoon masterpiece, “De. Glory Road. Aliss Windus has made a deep impression on her Greymouth audiences. One cannot speak too highly of Colonel Loader’s power as a lecturer, lie has the reputation of being the most humorous platform speaker of the day, and that reputation is cerinly justified. “The lighter side of Reconstruction” was the subject on which ho discoursed, and right from the start the Colonel sounded a note of optimism, and while lie kept his audience in a ripple of merriment, ho nevertheless succeeded in driving home some sound lessons. For example, lie wanted to impress on his hearers how little we of the Antipodes know of the terrible conditions existing in the old European countries to-day. It is like a boy who had lived up country all his life,” he said, “he had never seen a woman, but one day his father took him to town and married him to one. He left the happy couple to spend their honeymoon alone. Coinbreakfast with his son. ‘Where is ing back after about a month he had the woman?’ he asked. ‘What woman?’ ‘The woman I married you to. Your wife!’ ‘Oh, her?’ rejoined the boy. ‘Oh, she broke her leg in the backqard, and I. had to shoot her ! Tn New Zealand there is about one person to the square mile. In Europe there are ten to the square mile!” As a solution of the Yellow Peril, there was Manchuria for the Japanese ; as a lesson to Germany, there should be insistence on reparations which Fritz had learnt, were different from preparations ; as a reply to the statement that the British should take bag and baggage out of Indian, there waff the consideration that the interests of the people themselves were against it; and for the future of Ireland, there was the bright hope that North and South would yet meet on a common ground. Talking of New Zealand, the Colonel said that he had always had

it drummed into him that it was the most progressive place in the world. In England, they always said: “Why don’t yon do it like the New Zealanders?” “I will have a retort when 1 go back,” declared the Colonel. “I will be able to say that we can run our railways at least as well as New Zealand!’ Ho said that a matter of vital concern to every New Zealander was the development of the science of aerial transport. Commercial aviation had gone ahead so well that ho could safely predict that within five years, it would be, possible to travel from New Zealand to England in five, days for £8 or £10! The Colonel ended his lecture with an appreciation o£ the fighting qualities of the New Zealand soldier, which he said would be of tremendous value if they wore diverted to constructive ■ toad of destructive channels. The lecture ended at a late hour, but the audience could have listened to the Colonel, untiringly for another two hours. AS SHE IS SPELT. “AAV.P.” contributes the following :— Success io the yearly Chautariquas! Their artists are, absolute cauquas, Our brave guarantors Have no cors lor rors With smh sin-j,crs ami players ami tauquas.