ENTERTAINMENT AT ST. JAMES'S HALL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9130, 11 August 1888, Page 6

ENTERTAINMENT AT ST. JAMES'S HALL.

A musical and dramatic entertainment in aid of the building fund of the Epiphany Church, was held in St. James's Hall, Wel-lington-street, yesterday evening. There was a crowded attendance. The trial of Bardell v. Pickwick, from Dickens's "Pickwick Papers," was produced at the first part of the entertainment, the performance being very creditable. The character of Mr. Justice Stareleigh was taken by Mr. G. P. Pierce, who acted with the dimity becoming his position ; but in his summing-up he made a reference to a divorce case heard at the Supreme Court on Thursday, which had better have been left unspoken. Mr. T. L. White, though hardly vigorous enough in the part ol Sergeant Buz-fuz, spoke his lines with care. The opposing counsel, Sergeant Snubbin (Mr. V. E. Rice), scored a hit in his address to the jury, and he was loudly applauded at its conclusion. Considerable prominence was given by Mr. E. P. Hudson to the character of Mr. Winkle, whose behaviour in the witnessbox provoked much laughter, and the part of Sam Weller, taken by Mr. F. H. Templer, was also well sustained. Mr. F. Cotterel appeared a3 Mrs. Cluppins, and he made this character very humorous, his by-play with Mr. H. B. Lusk, who assumed the character of Mr?. Bardell, being most laughable. The other characters were : — Mr. Pickwick, Mr. E. Barker; Mr. Simpkin, Mr. C. Purchas ; Mr. Phunky, Mr. J. F. Sloman ; court crier, Mr. T. Charter ; Master Bardell, Master Hector Pierce. At the close of the first part glees, etc., were sung by members of the Grafton Orpheus Glee Club and others, and the entertainment closed with the farce, " Turn Him Out," in which the characters were sustained by Mrs. Dawson, Muss Dawson, and Messrs. E. P. Hudson, F. W. Dawson, and H. B. Lusk.