ABBOTT'S OPERA HOUSE

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7402, 10 August 1885, Page 5

ABBOTT'S OPERA HOUSE

The popularity of The Pearl Divers " continues to increase. On Saturday evening there was a crowded house, and the play was received with the most unqualified approval. Roars of laughter and outbursts of applause alternated in rapid succession during the whole of the performance. The elaborate spectacular scenes are now worked with astonishing precision and smoothness. The most popular, and one which never fails to create quite a furore, is the moving and realistic representation of a street in London in the fourth act, with its life-like pourtrayal of the incidents of outdoor existeuo in the great metropolis, and its impressive imitation of a thunderstorm and shower of rain. The latter on Saturday evening was admirably worked. Before the dramatic action which takes place in the scene commenced, or rather during a pause in it, the thunderstorm burst in all its fury. The rain began to come down in a steady stream. It could be heard falling on the housetops, and could be seen pouring off the roofs, and running along the street channels. Uinbrellaed pedestrians flitted across the stage, hurrying hither and thither, the stoical and disciplined policeman slowly paced his beat unmindful of the elements. Altogether the scene was vividly realistic. Then by-and-bye the sound of a familiar Salvation Army strain was heard in the distance, and on marched the " Army " band in full regalia, to the intense delight of the pit. The applause was deafening, and as the curtain descended on the army, band and everybody, standing in the midst of a torrent of rain, it was renewed again and again. The scene showing the bottom of the sea was also the signal for another enthusiastic demonstration. The movements of the two divers at work "full many a fathom low," the swimming to the surface of one of them, the darting of the finny inhabitants of the submarine world, all seemed so real as to constitute a pleasing and perfect illusion. As Messrs. MacMahon andLeitch's lease of the Opera House terminates on Friday evening, this unique and stirring play can only be performed for five nights more.