THE PLAY AND THE PLAYERS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIX, Issue 11536, 24 March 1898, Page 7

THE PLAY AND THE PLAYERS.

[Bt Prompter in “ Canterburt Times.”] In a Melbourne paper I read the good news that Mr Wilson Barrett may visit New Zealand. ■ It is reported that Mr Orpheus M’Adoo’s Coloured Minstrel and Vaudeville Company will visit New Zealand shortly. Miss Lucia Harwood, who toured the colony with the Majeronis in 1887, has married Mr Donald King, a wealthy Indian hanker.

The Messrs Fitzgerald had a remarkably successful season with their circus in Wellington. The season ended on Saturday night. They are now in Masterton.

Mr Edwin Geach sends a criticism taken from the Indian Daily News of Feb. 3, on Carl Hertz’s opening performance in Calcutta. The writer remarks that the conjuror should easily attract overflowing audiences during his brief season. Miss Edith Crane, who visited New Zealand with the Trilby Company, is highly praised for her portrayal of Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew at New York. One journal refers to her as “ the only heiress to the talent of Ada Reban.”

Mr Frank Thornton has had a most successful season in Dunedin. The Strange Adventures of Miss Brown might have run profitably for a few nights longer than it actually did. It was replaced by Sweet Lavender, which gave way in turn to The Private Secretary. The company will open here on March 25. In connection with Mr Bland Holt’s revival of A Sailor’s Knot to-night, it is interesting to note that of the artists who played in the first production of the play in Christchurch, Miss Annie Taylor, who played Dame Barbara, is dead; Mr E. Inman (Andre Delauny) recently visited New Zealand with a company of his own; Mr Walter Howe (Harry Westward) is in America; and Mr Brian England (Captain Vernon) is stated to have come into a fortune in England. Miss Ethel Clarke, a daughter of the late Marcus Clarke, author of “ For the Term of His Natural Life,” is desirous of going on the stage. Miss Edith Morley is the nom de the&tre of Miss Cartwright, who made her first appearance on any stage at the Bijou, Melbourne, on Saturday, February 19, in Mr Charles Cartwright’s production of The Squire of Dames, Mr Wilson Barrett’s initial production of Hamlet in Melbourne attracted a large audience. On the following morning a certain section of the press assailed Mr Barrett’s performance, with the result that the audience in the evening was larger at,ill This the actor-manager made the text of a short speech which he made from the stage before the performance began. On the following night, the last of the season, Othello was played. By the way, Melbourne theatre-goers profess great disappointment that Mr Barrett did not produce The Sign of the Cross. i Paragraphs from the Sydney Bulletin : — Barrett distributes his castes on Bernhardt’s principle, ladling out the fat, the turtle callipash and caliipee, impartially, so that no actor—save himself—had any claim to a particular line. Sarah has four leading men in Australia, and they had to fill up anyhow. There cannot be much swelled head in Barrett’s company. If a man is King Dick this week, he will be “ Charles, his friend,” next. How all the old lines of acting have gone into the melting pot! Heavy man, juvenile lead, first low, second low, first, second and third old man, first light, and so on. All .utility. * * * During a very rough passage on the M.L. coast, the steamer was facing a fierce gale doing its best to get off the lee - shore, when, up on the bridge, appeared a married member of a mumming company'on board—bearing the bass drum, to which was lashed his heir. Clasping his hands, he fell on his knees before the wondering old skipper, and yelled, above the shrieking of the gale, “ Captain, for the love of Christ, who loved little children, put me ashore. Anywhere! anywhere ! Only put me ashore where I can get a cab!” This, off a rock-bound coast, a hundred miles from any town. * * * Wonderful how easily the reception of a new performance can be misunderstood by the people chiefly interested in its success or failure. The first night of The Squire of Dames at Melbourne Bijou was celebrated by a supper-party at Menzies’ Hotel, and a number of unprofessional boarders who had attended the performance were astonished to hear the festive gatherers congratulating themselves on a “ splendid triumph,” &c., as they wished one another good-night in the corridor. . The comedy had fallen flat, but the actors felt no misgiving as to the result.

It is stated that Charles Godfrey, Dan Leno, and Chirgwin contemplate visiting Australia with powerful attractions shortly.

Mr Charles Arnold is trying to place in a West End (London) theatre his American acquisition, . What Happened to Jones, prior to Australia in about six weeks.

The London correspondent'of this paper writes : —Miss Nellie Barren was the guest of some sixty members of the Eccentric Club at a strange performance of Robinson Cntsoc at the Brixton Theatre the other night. Thirty motor cabs took these queer cards to the theatre. Arrived there, after a perusal of the programme printed backwards, they pelted the performers every few minutes with dainty boxes tied with red ribbon, and containing sweets and chocolates, varying their compliments by occasional floral tributes hurled with no lic/flt hand. When the author appeared he was bombarded for five minutes with a fusillade of chocolates. Having caught some two pounds in his hat, he retired, and let in Mrs Crusoe, who expressed the delight of all at seeing their “dear old friend ” Nellie Barren. A frantic outburst of cheering followed, so moving the old Gaiety favourite that the tears came to her eyes as she had to bow again and again from her box her acknowledgments for the hearty welcome.