THE PIQUANT PIERROTS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XIX, Issue 2052, 6 December 1924, Page 5

THE PIQUANT PIERROTS.

SOME SPARKLING FUN. “Piquant” is a very apt description of the Pierrot company which the Rev. T. P. Weatherhog brought from Otoroliauga and presented to an mndesrvedly small audience at the People’s Theatre on Thursday evening. From opening to final chorus there was not a dull moment; the" programme had the spice of variety, the sparkle of wit, and the charm of pleasant voices. The eight members appeared in jaunty pierrot costumes of purple and lemon against a background in the same colour scheme. Their first item was the favourite “Hitch Your Waggon” choirts, which was followed by a solo, “Song of the Waggoner” by Mr W. P. Wade, who was called upon to exercise his musical baritone in the “Mountains o’ Mourme” as an encore. Little Miss Gladys Wade speedily captivated the house when she appeared in a recitation, which she gave with plenty of life and go. Her gestures in this and a comic song later in the evening were particularly good. The voices of Miss Phyllis Atkinson and Miss Dorothy O’Rourke blended very sweetly in a duet, “Nocturne,” which was the musical success of the evening. Miss Atkinson also sang “Little Brown Bird” in her visual accomplished manner and was heartily encored. Mr W. P. Wade put over a lively rendering or “The Major,” in which he was twice recalled for another verse. In an exceedingly funny farce-sketch, Mr and Mrs Weatherhog quarrelled delightfully over their collaboration on a wholly impossible play. After the interval the whole company did a rollicking version of “Come to the Fair,” and brought down the house with a number of witty hits at local celebrities to the t'une yf “Oh, Would You Believe It?” Miss O’Rourke received quite n little ovation when she came on to sing “Sincerity,” and she was indeed at her best. Air H. Henderson provided excellent nonsense in “Where Flies Go in Winter Time.” The piece do resistance of the programme was reserved to the last, when a play in one act was. staged. Mrs Perkins is fed up with the “ ’ouse” and things in general, and when the Grand Cham’s diamond is pitched in through the window by an escaping thief she seizes on it as a heaven sent “chanc’t.” “Diminds belongs to them as ’as got ’em,” she declares to the horror of her timid husband (Rev. T. P. Weatherhog), who is finally reduced to the feeble protest, “Oli, desh it!” Though his better half eventrtally has to surrended her prize, she reflects. “Ah, well, 1 had me bit o’ fun for onec’t.” as the . curtain falls. The acting of Mrs Weatherhog as Mrs Perkins cannot be tou> highly praised. She sustained the East End manner, accent, and dropped aitebes perfectly throughout, in striking contrast to the supercilious young amateur playwright of the other sketch. The otliQr members of the company were Miss Atkinson us the daughter. Polly Perkins ; Mr O. Seymour, as the thief, and Air J. TVapskifhs Polly’s young man, Albert Watkins of Scotland Yard.