ENTERTAINMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12519, 11 March 1904, Page 6

ENTERTAINMENTS.

ANDERSON DRAMATIC COMPANY. "Hek Second Time on Earth" was again performed at the Opera House last night by the Anderson Dramatic Company before an appreciative audience. i'o-night the drama will be played for the last time. ; Tomorrow evening Mr. Anderson will give a change of programme, the piece to be produced being " When London Sleeps." This play has recently been played by three different companies at the one time in Australia, er.ch meeting with much success. Both the seamy and the clouded sides of life are shown. As act follows act and scene follows scene, the interest is said to become intense, until the thrilling sensations are 'arrived at, such as when the heroine walks a telephone wire with a child on her back to save herself being burned alive in her chamber.

THE ADMIRABLE CRICHTON. To-night will witness positively the last production of "The Light That Failed" at His Majesty's Theatre. There was- again a crowded attendance last night, when this fine play and its emphatically good interpretation made a great impression. It is agreed on' all hands that no more admirable representation, of a strikingly clever piece has been seen here for years. As the play, "The Admirable Crichton," by the well-known Scottish author, Mr. J. M. Barrie, to be presented by Mi. Williamson's company for the first time in Auckland at His Majesty's Theatre to-morrow evening, is of such a navel description, a slight synopsis of the plot should prove interesting. In the first act the noble Earl of Loam insists on receiving his servants in his drawingroom as his social equals. Once a month have his servants to go through the process; once a month have his daughters to wait upon them. The scene is dominated by the austere figure of the butler (Mr. Cuyler Hastings), the Admirable Crichton. He is a thorough Conservative, imbued with the traditions of his position, and views the situation rather asan affront to his dignity, and what is more, the dignity of the family he serves. The play progresses, and in the second act we find the earl, his family, and friends, accompanied by Crichton, who had been yachting in the South Seas, .f recked upon a desolate island. Here we have what Rousseau, that great appealei to the sensibilities, designates as "the return to nature." On the island, positions are completely reversed. Crichton is a born handy man, and by sheer force of circumstances quickly assumes the ascendancy. He is the one strong man, the rest follow. He becomes a veritable king, and the others are content i): he but says a kind word to them. King Crichton he is termed, or mere familiarly, "Guv." .The earl and his friends have cheerfully descended to menial offices, while his daughters, wait humbly on the Admirable Crichton. But the greatest change is in Crichton himself. He proposes to and is accepted by the earl' 9 daughter, Lady Mary, now plain Polly, while everyone trembles at hie slightest word. But an end comes to all this:; a ship is sighted, and though Crichton may have forborne to give the signal, he "plays the man." and a British naval party lands to carry the party back to England. The next and final act shows them once again installed in, the earl's house at Mayfair, where an extremely interesting and highly amusing denouement takes place, satisfying all parties. The whole subject is said to be dealt with in a way so whimsical, so pathetic, so ironic, and yet so serious, as to make one of the most ozglivatinp- plays produced during the last decade. Miss Susie Vaughan, the well-known English actress, now attached to this company, will make her first appearance this season in " The Admirable Crichton," taking the part of the Countess of Broeklehurst. '