AMUSEMENTS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 838, 23 March 1888, Page 14

AMUSEMENTS.

Information from members of the theatrical profession respecting their professional doings in this and the neighboring colonies is invited. Communications to be addressed to the Editor of this column.] The Theatre. Excepting Colonel McDonnell’s lecture the theatres have presented no attraction during he past week. The Royal will, however, occupied next week by Major Dane, the c flebrated American lecturer, of whose entertainments public criticism has only unqualified approbation to offer.

At a meeting of the Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Company Monday night the following oast of characters in “ lolanthe ” was adopted : —Lord Chancellor, Mr W. D. Lyon; Lord Mountararat, Mr E. Lewis ; Earl Tolloller, MrE. J. Hill; Private Willis, MrE. T. Sayers ; Strephon, Mr Haybittle ; Queen of the Fairies, Miss Leatham ; lolanthe, Miss Parkes ; Phyllis, Miss Randell. Mr Marshall, of the Theatre Royal, informs us that he has made arrangements for Major H. C. Dane, the well-known American orator, to deliver a course of four lec. tures in the Theatre Royal next week, commencing on Monday next. The subjects probably will beConstantinople, the Queen of the Levant,” “The Great Naval Battles of the Rebellion,” “Up the Rhine and over the Alps with a Knapsack,” “ The seic in Womanhood.” During his lectures n Auckland Major Dane drew the largest audiences ever assembled in that city at a lecture.

Mr H. A. Abbott, of Auckland, has engaged Maccabe for a tour of this Colony. He opens in Auckland about the end of April.

The following particulars respecting one of the lectures which will be delivered by Major Dane at the Theatre Royal next will be of interest to onr readers : “Up the Rhine and Over the Alps with a Knapsack,” has been delivered over a thonsand times from New York to San Francisoo, and from Auck. land to Adelaide. It is wonderfully interesting and humorous, and fall of surprises. It touches on the great Cologne Cathedral, Army regulations, Martin Luther, the birthplace of “ Protection," the printing press, the vineyards, the ruins, the dungeons of Marksbnrg, and a thrilling description of the ascent of an Alpine peak. It has been praised by the press of every city and town, and hundreds were turned away from the doors the last time it was given in Auckland.”

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS. Pain’s Fireworks opened in Christchurch last week to au immense audience, * The Saurian Monster, the Terror of the Waikato;’ was being shown in Wanganui laßt week, along with a diorama. The tone of the drama is to be raised in Dnnedin, a number of gentlemen having met for the purpose of solemnly considering how they were to raise it. * A Midsummer Night’s ’ dream was suggested ; ' and it was pointed out (says the Star) that the success of the Latin and Greek playE in the Old Country, and ef similar productions in Melbourne and Sydney, was enoouragiDg, and it was thought that since musical talent had proved so profitable here there was reason to believe that there is sufficient dramatic talent latent in the community to warrant~the taking up of this project, and carrying it to an. issue.’ It is also said that ‘ it the movement catches oh, it is proposed to give performances at intervals, and to devote any surplus funds to charitable objects, or to the furtherance of purpose deemed worthy of assistance by the committee of managemeut. The object is a laudable one, and the benighted people of this tax-ridden country will no doubt watch with keen interest the efforts of the classic authorities of Dunedin to raiso tho tone of the drama. As a better way of combining the good and the beautiful with the attractive, however, I humbly suggest that ‘Pericles Prince of Tyre ’ should be the piece played first, and that it be produced as the old gentleman wrote it. For it is to bo feared that • A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ played by amateurs—though they were Dunedin amateurs—might partake somewhat of the nightmare.

Among the attractions of the New Year’s ete forame on the boulevard (says a London per) is a ‘livingoriginalfishwoman.’ When the public, attracted by curiosity to behold the siren, have paid their money and entered the baraque, they find themselves face to face with a stoat, elderly, and altogether ordinary lady. This personage proceeds to explain that she ig ‘the original woman-fish.

or rather the Widow-fish, her husband's name having been Poisson ’At this point the sightseers retire in disgußt, and Mdme. Veuve Poisson prepares for another lot. This reminds one of the famous ‘ horse with his tail where his head ought to be,’ in English fairs. Miss Amy Sherwin, ‘ Australia’s Queen of Song,’ began a season at Christchurch on the 21st inst.

Autolycus.