HIS MAJESTY'S THEATRE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13195, 5 June 1906, Page 6

HIS MAJESTY'S THEATRE.

"THE FATAL WEDDING." "The Fatal Wedding," "by Theodore Kramer, was performed for the first time in New Zealand at His Majesty's Theatre last night. It is described as " a play of great heart interest." It has been a tremendous success (from the box office point of view) in America—the country of its origin and also in England and Australia, where many American plays do not flourish, but wither and wilter as sickly exotics in an unkindly climate. Technically considered, " A Fatal Weddin<r' is about as feeble a melodrama as melodrama can be. The story is improbable from beginning to end; it has not considered, as a whole, much resemblance to life as it really is, and while there is a blind feeling after naturalism in most melodrama, the people concerned in the cast of " The Fatal Wedding'' do the most absurd things, utter the most ridiculous nonsense, and generally do their utmost to be unreasonable and artificial beings. Then, wherein lies the great attraction of the piece—for itis one of the greatest money-makers of the age? The introduction of the word "wedding" into the title was not purposeless. No, every little detail, every word, every movement in " The Fatal Wedding" has been well thought out, and the whole has been designed to do what it has accomplished, pack every theatre in which it has been played. , There was scarcely standing room at His Majesty's Theatre last evening, and thus long before the play began money had to be refused at the doors, and the packed audience sat for nearly four hours, rilled from beginning to end, laughing, crying, sighing, smiling, hissing, cheering, even going to the length of flinging halt-crowns on to the stage during' the children's'scene. The children—yes, there again Mr. Ivremer displays his sagacity ; one cannot call it art; he would not himself go to that length, perhaps. The late Charles Arnold, in '" Hans the Boatman," discovered the stage value of the " kiddies, ", as he was wont to call them; aim Mr. Kremer was not • the man to omit such an important element out of his work. But of them anon.

The story of " The Fatal Wedding" is this: Howard Wilson (Mr."Charles Vane) is happy, handsome, and rich; so is his wife; so tire his two baby children. Cora Williams (Miss Dina Cooper) is madly in love with Mr. Wilson, and Robert Curtis (Mr. Herbert Leigh), described m "A man about town," is in love with Cora, or has inclinations that way, so he consents to place Mrs. Wilson (Miss May Congden) in a. compromising position, to- feed Cora's jealousy and to facilitate her way to "Wilson's heart. Wilson returns, alter an absence,, finds his wife locked in a room with Curtis, will hear no explanation from her, gets a divorce, also the custody of his children, and Miss Cora supplants Mrs. Wilson. The children are abducted through the good ollices of Bridget (Miss Amy Singleton), the Wilsons' cook, but are eventually recovered by their father, and by this -time Cora is firmly installed in the Wilson mansion as "aunt." Plain people would use another more forcible title, but as she is about to be married to the purblind husband, nobody considers her unchaperoned presence in the house as out of place. The marriage proceeds as far as -The Voice That Breathed O'er Eden," sung by a surpliced choir, assisted by a good congregation in a no less famous place of. worship than Trinity Church, New York. But before the first "I will" can be said, the wronged' wife'enters the church with documentary proof of Cora's conspiracy to ruin the Wilsons' happiness, and the rascal Curtis walks up the nave, and puts five bullets into the bride that was to be, and she falls dead on the altar steps. The lively strains of Mendelssohn's " Wedding March " accompany the fall of the curtain, and suggest the reconciliation of Wilson a;nd his wife. In the days of penury, following her divorce, Mrs. Wilson is forced to stitch shirts for a big department store at a miserable remuneration, and her little girl Jessica (Miss Maisie Posner) must needs hawk newspapers, and mind the squalling brats of the slum neighbours. Here the children come in. Redeemed from her poverty, little Jessica is taken to her father's home, where she has money amd food in plenty. But she does not forget her playmates"the kids of our alley '—and one' day its they are passing the house she invites them'all in with their tin can baud. They dance and sing, and rattle their tins, and'a, good fairy in the person of a fustylooking but kindly old German caretaker, one Schwartz (Mr. C. R. Stanford), exercises ' the functions of a master of ceremonies.-

This scene is very pretty, very natural, for the children have not had time to lacquer themselves with artificiality. That comes with maturer years, and so they romp about, gambol and have a very jolly time all round. -They seem to like it quite as much as the audience, who brought them back three times last night, which repetition with many others, which .file crowded house- would not be denied, accounts for the performance terminating after half-past eleven—a matter, by the way, which the management undertake to rectify. , The parts were admirably taken. No more could have been possibly made of the heartless adventuress than Miss Cooper made of Cora Williams. That she was frequently hissed, and not only by the gallery, must be taken as a, striking testimony of her successful impersonation. For the thoroughgoing adventuress there is no more Haltering applause than a good, honest, long-drawn hiss. Miss May Congdon was eminently successful as the in-, jured wife, and played in complete accord with the author's evident intentions. The audible sighs of sympathy which her trying experiences wrung from the feminine portion of the audience must all be placed to her credit. Mr. Charles Vane made a wholly satisfactory Howard Wilson, and his slight bias, in all his shillyshallying, to do the square tiling, won for him at times the manifest admiration of the' house. The blackmailing Curtis was well interpreted by Mr. H. Leigh; he was not at all so wicked a person as the usual villain. The acting of Maisie Posnef, the " little mother," as she was called, the child-daughter of the Wilsons, was most refreshing. The child had none of the stage stiffness of the ordinary youngster, but spoke her lines well, acted naturally, and entered thoroughly into the spirit 'of every situation, grave or gay. The humour, which is wholesome and abundant, was supplied by Mr. Oily Deering, as O'Rielly, a. policeman; Mr. T. Oannam as Toto. a French butler: and Miss Amy Singleton as Bridget. Upon these three rested the burden of the comedy of the play, and they carried it off well'from beginning to end. Mr. Stanford's study of Schwartz was most acceptably amiable. In the children's scene, a dainty dance was L'iven by .Miss Mollie Wilson, and two little mites, Queenie Williams and Mag. gie Dickson, and Miss Rosie Fitzgerald contributed to a clever entertainment. The "Fatal Wedding" will be repeated tins evening, and will positively terminate on Saturday next.

The. monthly meeting of the Auckland Society of Musicians was held in the Chamber of Commerce Rooms last evening-, Mr. W. IT. Weblx;, president, being in the chair. There was a large attendance, and the meeting was a very successful one. The evening was devoted to the reading of patters, including one on "Musical Criticism.' 1 by Mr C. N. Baeyertz, editor of the Triad, wherein he dealt with the musical criticism of several of the New Zealand papers. Mr. Rupert Mantell took "Vocalism" as his subject and the president dealt with "Musical Examinations," whilst a paper on a similar subject by Mr. Maughan Burnett, of Wellington, was read by Mr. Singer. The reading of the papers was listened to with great attention, and a very interesting evening was brought to a close' by a discussion on the subjects dealt with and a number of other musical topics. Since- the Commonwealth Government, prohibited lite importation of opium, Chinese addicted to the "drug have been severe sufferers.*' Gee Duck, aged 64 years, a cook, who had smoked opium for 20 years, died at Sydney this month fr.om "heart failure, accentuated by , the sudden cessation of the use of opium. He had smoked opium, until a week before his death.