"My Sweetheart."

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8142, 16 November 1905, Page 5

"My Sweetheart."

A Meritorious Performance.

The Palmerston Players are to be most heartily .congratulated upon the excellence of their performance of "My Sweetheart" at the Opera House last evening. The audience, which was very large, all parts of the house being comfortably full, aecorclec\hearty and lavish applause to the various performers. Tne production was by no means perfect—such was not to he; expected from amateurs, but talcing it on the whole it.may safely be said that it' completely surpassed anything, previously attempted by the amateurs of this town in the careful attention to detail and the excellence of the general arrangements. Coining to the play: itself it must be1 admitted that several of the situations, notably that where Tony Faust is stricken with blindness, and also the closing one of all, were not quite as effective as they might have been made, but doubtless an improvement will be made in this direction in subsequent performances. The various situations of the play, some serious and some mirthprovoking, centre around the love story of Tony Faust, a Dutch boy, and Tina, a farmer's daughter, these parts being most capably interpreted by Mr E. G. Honey and Miss D. Tail respectively.. The former character was perhaps nob so strongly represented as it might have been, but Mr Honey .deserves great credit for the manner in which lie sustained a difficult part. His songs were very well rendered, also the duet with Tina. Miss Tait's interpretation of the important part of Tina was really^ excellent, and she received frequent applause. She made the most of the many situations in which she took part, her vocal numbers being also very successful. Of the other characters undoubtedly the one which took the fancy of the audience most was that of Mrs Hatzell, thispartbeingentrusted to Mr ]N T. Stevens. He was simply irresistible as a farmer's wife and was very well received indeed. He gave a very clever performance. Another well-drawn part was that of Dudley Harcourt by Mr H. Wood. It was certainly one which lent itself to the sort of treatment it received and materially assisted in the success of the performance. The vocal numbers allotted to the character provided a humorous element that was greatly appreciated by the audience, though they should rather be termed monologues than songs. On two occasions encores were insisted on by the spectators. The impersonations of the characters of Joe Shotwell (Air D. Galloway) and Farmer Hatzell (Mr V. Fitzherbert) were also most successful, the former especially giving a very capable interpretation. Mr D.. Galloway as Harold Bartlett and Mr Jas. Tait as Dr. Oliver were ratlier stiff and inclined to monotony, while Miss Cameron's treatment of the "part of Mrs Fleeter was somewhat colourless m parts, though effecI tive as a whole.

_ An important feature in the production was the part taken by a bevy of daintily-dressed children, the numerous dances in which they took part being entirely successful. Special mention should bo made of the eminently satisfactory manner in which the Misses J. Cocks and E. Gellior and Master Carter sang the solos allotted to them, encores being loudly demanded by the audience. A number of very effective dances wore also introduced, those by Miss Birdie Foley bein<* greatly appreciated and loudly ap° plauded. Her vocal efforts v.'ere also appreciated. Mr Peat and his pupils also danced a most novel sand dance in^good style.. The grand eake-iralk finale to the first act was specially good, the curtain having to be raised in response to an insistent recall. A word of.special praise is due to the manner in which the production was staged, great credit being due to Mr H. Muller in this connection. The orchestra was under the baton, of Mr p. Tombs, and rendered good sejrv.ee. '■'■