AMUSEMENTS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2128, 29 February 1908, Page 1 (Supplement)

AMUSEMENTS.

LOCAL FIXTURES.

HIS MAJESTY’S

March s—Cricket Concert March II to 14—Brough Fleming Conqiany. Ala rch 20.—Cook County Curious Cooms. Alay 11, 12, 13-—J. C. "Williamson. Juno 8,9, 10—J. C. Williamson. August 12, 13, 14—Frank Thornton.

(By Footlights)

Amusement seekers will be given an opportunity to-night to witness wluit is claimed to be the finest display of moving pictures produced in Gisborne. Probably no conbination lias yet succeeded in gauging the. popular taste better than the AlacAlalion Bros, and in the moving picture business they have spared no pains to In' right in front. The renowned drama “Robbery Under Arms” will be produced to-night in a series of remarkable views whilst the stage "effects” are are on a. scale that Gisbornites have not in the past been lamiliar with a Times’ reporter smiled when Air Joe AlaclMahon, who is ahead ol the show stated that there was "absolutely no flicker” with the iiictures, but the genial Joseph reiieated the declaration with such enqiliasis that, the point had to tie conceded There i.s no question but that the entertainment will be of a high-class nature. One of the subjects deal with is one depicting a child being lost in the Alps anil subsequently being rescued by ttic dogs ol St. Bernard.

Tho Cornell Family, musicians, vocalists, and dancers, from Christchurch, opened a season at the Bombay Gaiety Theatre on January 17, after appearances, since leaving Australia, in Colombo, Almiras, and Calcutta.

Allen Hamilton has secured the Australian rights of Arthur Shirley’s latest drama, “The. Sjiider and the Fly,” which will be sent through New Zealand about the end of April.

An Australian writer says:—l notice that a couiile of Alelbouriie jmpers refer to “Kate Douglas "Wiggins’ great play ‘Alls Wiggs of the Cabbage Batch’ ” which is coming out to Australia tin’s year. As a matter of fact the creator of "Airs Wiggs” is Alice Hagan Rico, author of whose books, "Lovely Alary” (sequel to

"Airs Wiggs") has had an immense sale. Mrs Allen Hagan Rice has already drawn £50,000 in royalties from the two books anil 2>iay.

It what the Wellington representative of the Sydney "Referee” hears is true, the ceiebraied French actress, Sarah Bernhardt, will appear lor tea nights in Auckland and Wellington respectively, six in Christchurch, and live in Dunedin. It is significant that Air Bert Royle, the rciiresentative, of the J.C.AY. firm in New Zealand, lias made several important bookings of late, and the engagements already entered into will carry the firm’s operations in New Zealand jiast 1910.

At length (sags the Sydney "Hefei eo”) it i.s possible to make a definate announcement regarding "Peter Pan,” that dainty and most whimsical of fairy stories by J. Al. Barrie, to the Australian Premiere of which playgoers of this side of the world have been so eagerly looking forward. That premiere will take ;dace at the Princess" Theatre, Alelbouriie , on .April 18 (Easter Saturday), aim an additional attraction will mark tho occasion in that it will signalise the return of Aliss T-itell Bruno to the scene of so many former triumphs.

“Airs AViggs” is a real live person,' and she lives, of course, mnler her own name in a locality known as “Tho Cabbage Patch” in Louisville, Kentucky. The old lady, however, dislikes to. be pestered. Not long ago she douched a Society woman with water, and was summoned to the police court, where she was honorably discharged. To a reporter she declared :

“I won’t trouble notoriety if notoriety don’t trouble me. They kin put me in books and in the stage until the’rc sick of it, but you’ll have to steer clear of me in person.’

AVriles a correspondent of the Sydney "Bulletin” :—Australians will see a different Sarah Bernhardt next year from the Sarah Bernhardt they knew in ’9l. 1 watched her three years ago in ".La- Tosca,” and while rejoicing, as ever, at her 2>ccrless art, L was shocked at the changes that had come •since 1 saw her in Baris as Cleopatra about ’95. Sarah is an old woman now, and, because she inis never spared herself, bn lias lived her gorgeous life for all it was worth, looked older even than her years. She can’t any Jongci do the strenuous tilings she used to do. At 50,provided a woman has magnificent physique and perfect health, it is passible for her to fall violently at full length in a deatli scene,- or etrugle or light in a natural fashion. At GO, those feats become dangerous. At 65, to attemjit any of them would he the act of a lunatic. To meet the needs of her growing years, all Sarah’s "business” in her plays has haul to be changed. For examjile, in the great “La Tosca” deatli scene, where of yore she stabbed herself on the steiis and fell crashing therefrom to the earth, and afterwards crawled agonisedly over to Alarm, .Bernhardt now subsides ever so gently into the arms"of a couple of waiting soldiers, and has to he supported to the side of her lover. It is tho same in "Andrienne Lecouvreur,” a play which is bound to he presented to us here, and from which all the "violent acting is deleted. AAR l at. still stands to Bernhardt i.s her stage-craft, her genius for grouping, for color-scheming, and for getting the ultimate ounce out of every true artist associated with her; and above all her peerless golden voice. It is not true, perhaps, to say that the voice i.s unchanged, but it is still incomparable. There is no other speaking voice in the world at all like it. It is as well worth big money to hear Bernhardt declaiming in "Cleopatra.” or whispering in “La Tosca” (apart altogether from the acting) as to hear Alelbn in opera.