THEATRE ROYAL.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LI, Issue 5598, 3 February 1879, Page 5

THEATRE ROYAL.

The "Lady of lyons" and " Black-eyed Susan** closed theaaason oh Saturday;night. The second w distinguished as on the first night by the! masterly impersonation ofthe young sailor by Mr Bignoldand the excellent' acting of MissNavaro as BusamNothingcould be more pleasant than the fun and humour of the first half of this drama as played by the whole company* and few things can be Con*’, ceived more, painful than the last half. The high spirits of Mr Bignold, his animation, the exceeding naturalness (his very language was clipped and half slipshod) of hismanner, and the thoroughness of aU his ,sayings and do> ings, those with the dry sayings of; Master Quid (very' well said by Mr Burford) the; restless comicalities of Gnatbrain (Mr Power), the airs and graces of Dolly Mayflower (Miss Bessie Vivian), and the foxy wolfishness of Doggrass (Mr Sterling Whyte), made muqfa. fun of the first half of the piece, full of witty dialogue as it is. Mr Bignold had thestrength of mind to refuse to repeat his hornpige, People should remember that Mr Bignold is not a dancer of breakdowns, bat if they will not remember it, they should be reminded of It. The second half was remarkable for the emotional acting, as on the first occasion, of Mr : Bignold and Miss Navaro, The " Lady of Lyons,” which was the first piece, played,, served by the. contrast of Bulwer Lytton’s artificiality to introduce.the healthy sentiment, vigorous language, arid dramatic simplicity of Douglas Jerrold, but it did not give Mr Bignold an opportunity to make a great success. Claude Melnotte may become one of his great characters, after he has devoted more study to it; but it is not So by any means at, present. The character is somewhat thankless; as its author did not make it great, it is very hard that actors should have to do so. But a perverse fashion has so decreed it, and actors, like other men, bow to fashion. 'A great actor can afford to defy its dictates, for the men who are 1 great in their particular walks are the men who set fashions, not follow them, in those walks. There is really no particular reason why a man who is great as Henry T. and Amos Clark, and who can produce saoh a wonderfully correct character study as Colonel Challice, should be expected to vapour out the sickening tinsel of Bui war Lytton. Claude Melnotte can add’nothing to ms laurels, and the part may with the unthinking tarnish them. The Pauline of Miss Jennie Watt was a very good performance. This again is a part which fashion prescribes must be in every leading repertory. The author has done no more for his heroine than for his hero. When he began to draw her portrait, he had in his eye a heartless exceedingly commonplace young woman, who is easily got to see m the glitter of tawdriness the sheen of true metal. When he ended he was thinking of a woman of high soul, noble of disposition, unselfish and full of heart and tenderness. One or two good speeches, and a great many of a very common order, form the setting of this picture. What actress can like it, if she be a true woman ? and what actress but must acknowledge the difficulty of making anything of it P Yet they must all try it, reconciling the irreconcilable as they may, , and giving soul to a lifeless body in the manner that suggests itself to them as best. With tins very unpromising material Miss Watt did very well. Though she might have been greater in the scene in the cottage where Pauline ie made to realise the horror of her situation, her impersonation was $t every other point a very good one. She boro herself throughout with much tenderness of manner, dignity, and. the ease of a practised actress. Hyperorlticism might be inclined to say that she sobbed rather too much, but what is an unfortunate woman to do in the numerous anddong-drawn scenes «jf bitterness the author has condeipned her to go through P If the author, insists upon parading the grief-stricken <v>untehahce of a heroine for an eternity before ah audience, the heroine must parade and sob, and sob and parade, until the audience is inclined to cry, “ Enough.” On the, whole the Pauline of Miss Jennie Watt is one of the best we have seen here.

Miss Bessie Vivian made a good deal of the part of Madame Deschapollea, in the spirit of caricature which inspired the author. She created a great deal of amusement and got a good deal of applause for the way in which she got off many of her sayings, and for the spirit and life of her action. 1 The part of thp Widow Melnotte was entrusted toMiss Annie Major, in whom it found a very tender appreciative representative. Her last speech to Claude, as he is rushing off to the wars forgetting his mother, was a fine putburst of maternal tenderness, which very much touched the audience. We like the Colonel Hamas'of Mr Sterling Whyte, tyh-bap conception was of a dry old veteran, caustic of wit, ■ and unruffled of /• demeanour. Original, and carefully played the Impersonation did him credit. Mr Bufford.’ aa' Beauseant, played the villain of the piece in his usual painstaking, well-Btudied mann'er,* andtheothor oharactera were fairly represented, 1