Mr Coppin's Theatrical Company.

Manawatu Herald, 5 April 1892, Page 3

Mr Coppin's Theatrical Company.

The Managing Director of the Australian Theatrical Management Company is Mr G. S. Coppin, M.L.C. A meeting was held recently at which it was shown that during the past six months the company had lost £5741. During the proceedings the particulars of the Company's disagreement with the Age newspaper were made public. It appears that at the beginning of the recent pantomime season the management had been fined for allowing' persons to stand at the back of the dress circle when all the seats were full. To avoid this they wrote to the several newspapers, asking them to limit their free lists while money was being turned away from the door. Mr Coppin said tlie request was acted on with kind consideration by every newspaper except the Age, whose manager requested that the names of thirteen reporters representing that journal might be removed from the free list. This was done, the Repaid for admission to sea the pantomime, and the result was, according to Mr Coppin. that the " best pantomime evei* produced in the colony was criticised unkindly." The chief trouble seems to have been that the paper said. the public felt, disposed to sleep during those intervals between the occurrence of those parts Whifch were worth seeing," a statement which Mr Coppin denied with much warmth. The, upshot was ; that the management dfct down the length of their advertisement inthe Age to two inches, whereupon Mr Syr_.es, the proprietor, declined to insert it at all, and no reference to . the Theatre Royal appeared in the paper. A mutual friend tried to arrange matters, but without success, as Mr Symes' condition for peace was that they should make the Age's advertisement twice as long as ' that given ty any other paper. So the matter rests, we - believe, B>t j | present^ arid the Theatre Royal ' Company, at a criticol stage of their, I existence, are ;withput the assistanoe of the 'publicity afforded by advertisements and notices in a powerful paper.