ENTERTAINMENTS

Hawera Star, Volume LII, 28 July 1932, Page 2

ENTERTAINMENTS

OPERA HOUSE, ABDY’S animals and birds. •LIONEL AT-WILL: IN <£ SILENT WITNESS. An entirely new note is struck ‘in the outstanding ’ stage presentation by ‘‘Abdy’s Circus,” now at the Ilawcra Opera House. Large audiences last night and yesterday afternoon were amused and delighted at the clever performances of a band of versatile dogs, cats, cockatoos and pigeons, which seemed, to reveal in the tricks they carried out. In this novel circus, the directors obviously possessed the full confidence- of their charges. With the exception of a little Pomeranian dog, every performer was pure white, and the appearance of the troupe when the curtain rose was striking. The cats were the first performers and they went through a series of hurdle races and feats of balancing. Then came the two little dogs in ball-rolling and similar tricks. A delightful item was that in -which a black dog, with a nursemaid’s cape over his head,_ pushed a perambulator in which a white cat sat, enjoying the ride. Later the white pigeons wore placed in a row along a plank and one of the cats sedately stepped over and between them qiiite -unconcernedly and without alarming the birds in’the least. Another spectacular act. centred around a miniature bridal coach. Into this two cockatoos stepped, another sat on the box as coachman, and two others drew the coach along in dignified manner. Another cockatoo showed discrimination between four national flags, pulling to the top of the miniature flagstaff whichever flag tke director named. Even more remarkable was 'the second feat of a second cockatoo which struck a bell the number of times named, and in answer to how many hours a day it would like to work, or how many shillings it would like to receive, appeared to show a fine sense of humour. The entertainment -set an entirely new standard. There is a good programme of talkies, headed by '“The Silent Wit-

ness,” a thriller in which Lionel Atwill stars.

•“TARZAX, THE APE MAN.”

The closest “elose-up” ever made of a mad elephant on rampage was secured by a Metro-.Goldwyn-Mayer cameraman during filming of ‘ ! ‘Tarzan, the Ape Man,” screen version of .the wide-ly-read Edgar Rice Burroughs jungle tale, which will be shown .to-morrow night at the Opera House for a season of three nights and a matinee on Saturday. A herd of twenty large elephants was placed in a stockade near an African pygmy village. Along each side of the scene heavy pilings were driven into the ground to prevent the huge pachyderms from running out of the line of action. Large posts were erected in the middle of this runway, .behind which the cameramen were stationed so'that they would be able to 1 photograph the action from several j angles. The box plan is at Miss Blake’s, ’phone 2713. I ’Tho box plan for • Viennese Nights,” which commences a return 1 season at the matinee, ‘Grand Theatre, on Saturday', is filling fast.