"PAID IN FULL."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18862, 10 November 1924, Page 9

"PAID IN FULL."

The Nellie Bramley Company will present the drama "Paid In Full" at His Majesty's Theatre this evening, to-morrow and on Wednesday. Miss Bramley has the rare faculty of merging herself in any character she is playing, so that, whether in comedy or in drama, she can always impress with the sincerity of her work. In "Paid In Full" Miss Bramley has a part which needs sympathetic touches and emotional feeling. As a young wife, who, awaro of her husband's misdoings, .tries to save him from the effects of his folly, Miss Bramley is said to give a powerful portrayal of a noble character, tho lights and shades being drawn with fine artistry. Mr. George Bryant, who created the role of the sea captain, when it was first played in Australia, is said to give a fine characterisation. Mr. Guy Hastings and Mr. George Hewlett also have outstanding parts in this poignant drama. Revivals will be given for* the three remaining nights of the season at His Majesty's. "Peg o' My Heart" wijll be presented on Thursday, "Sunday" on Friday, and "Fair and Warmer" on Saturday. Box plans for all these plays open this morning at Lewis R. Eady and Son, Ltd. OPERA HOUSE. The programme to be presented at the Opera House this afternoon and evening will, with one exception, be completely new. A scena, entitled "Bluff King Hal, ' will be again staged by Mr. Harry Claff, the actor-vocalist. The act is an unusual one, Mr. Claff giving a lifelike characterisation in a regal setting, and attired in a gorgeous costume, complete in every detail. Mr. Claff'a. sallies on tho amorous peculiarities of Henry VIH wore greeted on Saturday evening with unrestrained laughter. He is assisted by Miss Winnie Wager. An entirely new programme will be presented by John- Moore, the Scottish character comedian, whose powerful baritone voice will be heard in several new "numbers. Miss Jennie Roy will be seen this week in Highland dances and another change of programme will also be presented by Hartley and Wright. The Band Box Revue Company will appear in a review entitled "On the Beach at Waikiki," a musical playlet amid the bright settings of Honolulu, providing a fine background for the players, headed by Mr. Gayle Wyer as Dod Darney, a press agent, who has followed the girl he wants to Waikiki. The girl's mother, however, has higher aspirations, so Darney hires the services of two loafers, played by Walter Cornock and Frank Perry, to impersonate aristocrats, in a plan to defeat the mother's ends. GRAND OPERA SINGEBS. Messrs. J. C. Williamson, Ltd., announce that a quintette of principals from the Melba-Williamson Grand Opera Company will tour New Zealand, commencing at His Majesty's Theatre, Auckland, on Wednesday, November 19. The performances will be in character, and will include several concerted numbers from favourite operas. The personnel of the company will be as follows: —Signer Nino Piccaluga, tenor; Signor Apollo Granforte, baritone; Sigaora Augusta Concato, dramatic soprano; Miss Phyllis Archibald, contralto; and Signor Amaldo Schiavoni, musical director. The Italian members of the party are all well-known European singers, and Miss Archibald has been prominent in the attempt I to restore British opera at Covcnt Garden. During the recent remarkably successful seasons of Grand Opera in Sydney and Melbourne one of the outstanding features was the intensely dramatic singing of Signor Granforte in the roles of Tonio in " I Pagliacci," and Figaro in j " The Barber of Seville." Miss Archibald scored notable successes as Dalila in Saint-Saens' opera, and Azucena in "II Trovatore." The " double " performances of Signor Piccaluga and Signor a Concato in such operas as " Madama Butterfly," " Carmen," " Aida," and " La Boheme '• were so popular with Australian audiences that these two artists were called on for a greater number of performances than any of the other principals. Signor Schiavoni, who accompanies the party as musical director, shared with Signor Paolantonio the conducting honours ol the Australiian season.

"THE THIEF OP BAGDAD." The great fantastical photoplay, "The Thief of Bagdad," drew larger attendances to ';he Tivoli and Everybody's Theatres on Saturday than either house could accommodate, hundreds of people being turned away. The picture mark 3 a departure from the customary film production in many ways., and the results achieved exceed the highest expectations. It is called "a glorious fantasy of the Arabian Nights," and nothing could more fitly describe it. Scenes of amazing magnitude and beauty follow one upon the other until the mind of the spectator is literally steeped in grandeur. The mechanical effects introduced in these stupendous scenes to achieve the fairy-tale miracles demanded by the story outclass anything attempted on the screen before and their presentation has been_ perfected to a degree hitherto found impossible. Douglas Fairbanks, who produced the picture in his own studios, and who has the role of the picturesque thief of Bagdad, appears in a more likeable form than anything he has yet His athletic figure, stripped to the waist, strides through scene after scene of mystery, beauty and imagination, performing wonderful feats of strength and agility, and producing incredible effects by the magical resources at his disposal. "The Thief of Bagdad" is preceded at Everybody's Theatre by a specially-staffed prologue, and is accompanied by the full orchestral score, as written for the picture, played by an augmented orchestra of 14 instruments. A specially-arranged musical programme is also played at the Tivoli Theatre, where a matinee performance is given each afternoon in addition to the evening session. NATIONAL THEATRE. The current programme at the National Theatre is headed by the First National picture, "Secrets," featuring Norma Talmadge. It is a finely-con-ceived and beautifully executed romantic story of a woman's undying love for her husband. It lays bare a woman's heart, and shows a love so pure as to be idealistic, one which lasted, undimmed, more than half a century, withstanding parental opposition, poverty with its hardships, and the more insidious dangers of wealth, including repeated unfaithfulness on the part of the loved one. The heroine is shown at four different periods of her life, with a lapse of many years in between. Each section is of a different typri of drama, all, however, being woven together into a beautiful story of a life of love and sacrifice. No other role has made such demands on Norma Talmadge.

Running the gamut of years and emotions, sho gives a wonderful performance, finely expressing each subtle change of feeling. She is ably supported by Eugene O'Brien. A special prologue is staged each evening, and an enlarged orchestra plays an excellent programmo of incidental music.

BROADWAY THEATRE. "The World's a Stage," a dramatic film story of a cinematograph actress* life in Hollywood, written by no less an authority than Elinor Glvn, > v "l bo shown at the Broadway Theatre, Newmarket, this evening and to-morrow evening Dorothy Phillips has the principal role—that of a girl who accepted love at first sight and found it wanting after the ceremony. ' SUNDAY SCHOOL CONCERT. The concert programme which was submitted to a large audience in the Cniircn of Christ Sunday School HaD, last Tuesday, wfll be repeat*! on Wednesday evening.