THEATRE ROYAL.—THE LINGARDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIII, Issue 4694, 29 November 1876, Page 2

THEATRE ROYAL.—THE LINGARDS.

The performance last evening comprised " Not Such a Fool as he Looks Mr. Lingard as Sir Simon Simple, and Miss Alice Dunning (Lingard) as Felicia; Mr. Holloway as Daniel Murgatroyd, Miss Lawrence as Mrs. Mould, Mrs. G. W. Collier as Mrs. Merton. The leading parts were excellently played, the dry and quiet humour of Mr. Lingard provoking intervals of hearty laughter. The second piece was the " Spitalfields Weaver," in which Mr. Lingard took the part of Simmons, provoking incessant merriment. A speciality is announced for to-morrow evening, in the production of a series of sketches in reference to which the following good story is told of these performances in Washington :—"Some time since, having announced a performance at the National Theatre, he (Mr. Lingard) advertised amongst the celebrities he would impersonate during the evening, the name of President Grant. The house was crowded to excess on the occasion, but Mr. Lingard's feelings can scarcely be analysed when, on peeping through the eye-hole in the curtain he perceived the President himself seated in one of the boxes. The performance, however, went on, and, as he neared that portion of the programme in which President Grant was announced to appear, the excitement of the audience became intense. At last the turn for the President came. lin T gard hesitated for a moment, but the shouts of the audience were deafening, and in a few seconds he stepped forward—the life-like image of the President. For a few moments the walls of the theatre seemed ready to burst, as cheer after cheer was thundered out, mingled with the name of ' Grant!' and in the midst of the tumult the President himself stepped forward and bowed his acknowledgments. For a second, as the two men, one in the box and his counterpart on the stage, stepped forward, the likeness was bewildering, and the uproar increased. The next moment President Grant turned towards the stage to bow his acknowledgements to Mr. Lingard, when what was his surprise to see standing before him, not his own double, but a life-like image of G. V. Brooke. In the few seconds of excitement attendant on the second burst of applanse, Mr. Lingard had changed from one character to another."