AMUSEMENTS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 879, 4 January 1889, Page 13

AMUSEMENTS.

sf The Theatre. "The Mystery of a Hansom Cab” was repeated by Mr Darrell and his company at Opera House last night week before a large audience. As on the previous night, Mro Darrell’s acting in Kate Rawlins was the feature of the performance. In the first act her acting is very powerful, and her representation of the unfortunate " waif and. stray” is deserving of great praise, not only as a whole, but especially for the attention given to detail. Miss Maggie Oliver has a largo share of the comedy :of the drama, and kept the audience well amused. Mr Haygarth as the cabman, and Mr Berkeley as Nosey Aarons, assisted to enliven the drama generally, and as a whole the performance was an improvement on that of Wednesday night. The audience appeared to feel considerable interest in the plot, and the performers were freely applauded. Gaylord and Silbon’s Novelty Company gave their third performance at the Theatre Royal last night week, when a capital programme was executed. The performance of Messrs Moulton and Dashway on the triple bars evoked the heartiest enthusiasm of the audience, who would nob bo satisfied until they had answered to a double recall. The acrobatic pastimes of the Dale Bros, and their comic juggling caused immense amusement, and' kept the audience iD roar? of laughter while they were on the stage. The startling flying leap of the Silbon Bros., truly a marvellous performance, was very neatly done, and again elicited unbounded applause. The finale, " The Rendezvous,” a most absurd comicality, served to send the audience home in a good humour. Gaylord and Silbon’s Novelty Company gave another capital entertainment at the Theatre Royal on Friday to a most enthusiastic audience. The various feats of dexterity were received with rounds of applause, and most of the performers were recalled. The unanimous opinion of the audience was that in the special lines shown a cleverer company has never before visited this city. The feats of the Silbons alone are well worth a visit, for they verge upon the marvellous. The comic element is well represented, the Girards and the Dale Bros, provoking roars of laughter. The pantomime in the early part of the evening is one of the most amusing things ever seen in this town, and would make the most hardened and satiated playgoer laugh in spite of himself. The Jungfrau Kapelle, a company of Swiss musicians and singers, will begin a season in Wellington this month. « HUE AND CRY.” Mr George Darrell’s drama, "Hue and Cry,” which was produced for the first time in Wellington at the Ope'.a House on New Year’s night is one of the best dramas ever played here, ara certainly by far the best Mr Darrell has written. That, we think, was the general verdict of the large audience who saw it performed. Tfio plot is founded ostensibly on the fortunes of Robert Bagot, a Lancashire lad, who is convicted of murdering a gamekeeper, and sentenced to seven years’ penal servi. tude in Australia. The crime was really committed by his mate, Will -Hayes, but Bagot remains under the stigma until his innocence is proved by Hayes making a confession. Upon this plot Mr Darrell has built up a drama in which the light and Bhade of many phases of Australian life are shown. The change from the copse in Lancashire 1 1 a miner’s hut in Australia is a bold one, but is so well done that the great transition is easily effected without any of the crude impossibilities to be found in such efforts. Similarly, the dramatist takes his audience from the El Dorado of the South to Mayfair, aud back again by easy stages, and without any literary or dramatic jolting. The language in the play is far aud above anything Mr Darrell had hitherto oiven us, and shows that he has made very great improvement since he wrote his earlier plays. The acting vyas almost as good as the piece, and desetves every credit. Mr Darrell himself for once cast aside the heroic and appeared as the sterling good-hearted Lancashire “lad,” Bob Bagot. His acting was quiet, but effective, and his dialect excellent. In the scene where he meets Will Hayes, and tells the tale of the latter's villainy, he was seen at 1 his best, and fairly brought down the house by the force with which, without anything in the shape of ranting, he told to the real murderer the story of his wrongs. In this he was greatly assisted by Mr Robert Vernon, whose representation of Will Hayes, alias Will Dove, wa3 a very powerful piece of character • acting. Quite the star of the performance, however, was Miss Maggie Oliver, who played Mrs Bob Bagot, an Irish lady of unquestionable sentiment. The author has fairly excelled himself in this part, . which, is very smartly written, and Miss Oliver did all possible justice to it. .Her quaint sayings and excellent business kept the audience roaring with laughter, and will establish her permanently as a favourite in Wellington. Mrs Darrell played Duloie Bagot in a lively and taking style, and the same may |be said of Miss Jessie Howarde’s Olive Lasoelles. There are numerousother characters in the piece with which we have not space to deal now, except to say that Mr H, piver (Julian Lasoelles), Mr A. Rolfe

(Rupert Bagot),. Mr F. Stephenson (Mark Maddox), Mr J. J. Kennedy (Sir Phillip Lasoelles), aud Miss Mabel Tracey (Grace Ryder) are deserving of praise for their acting. Mr Haggarth’s Ah Wong was a somewhat harmless specimen of the stage Chinaman. As a whole, however, a good drama was well staged and acted. True, thsre are one or two places in which the drama is susceptible of slight improvement, but generally it is a wholesome and powerful play which ought to have a good run. The second performance of Mr Darrell’s drama, “ Hue and Cry,” attraoted a large audieuce to the Opera House on Wednesday night. The play wasevenmoresuccessful than on the previous night, and the comedy with which it abounds was largely enjoyel by the audience. The soberer portions of the drama were also effective, and Mr Darrell’s acting was first-class. The other members of the company backed him up excellently, and all the parts were well filled. Mrs Darrell has in Dulcie a part that fits her admirably, and Miss Jessie Howarde does the little she has to do as Olive Lasoelles very well, and dresses in exceedingly good taste. Miss Maggie Oliver, the real heroine of the play, was beyond compare, as usual; and of the male characters, Mr H. Diver deserves ‘praise for his performance of Julian Lascelles. The drama will be played for two nights longer, and on Monday will give place to " First Class,” a sensational drama by Scudamore. THEATRICAL NOTES. The charming Von Finkelstein is in Australia again, and has been lecturing in Mel. bourns. Mr George Leitch is in the vicinity of Melbourne with a powerful dramatic company (of course !). Mr Leitch is the star, and his crack pieces are ‘Human Nature,’ Harbour Lights,’ and ‘ His Natural Life.’ It would be difficult to say, without mature consideration, which of these dramas is the beßt. On the whole we should say ‘His Natural Life ’ is the worst if the version Mr Leitch is now playing is the one he played here. The good men do, says thß only one, lives after them ; but in this case the good Marcus Clark did lives after him in an extremely bad shape. The drama of dramas though, as far as Mr Leitoh’s association is concerned, was 'The Pearl Divers,’ ths piece with the real rain. Well we remember the vast length of that marvellous work. Men in their prime went into the Theatre Royal with joyful hearts at seven-thirty and came out when the play was over greyheaded old men 1 Miss Carrie Swain is in South Australia. The Cogills are still doing big business at St George’s Hall, Melbourne, where they have been for over a year,; Yet they froze here 1 Wirth’s Circus is in Tasmania. Mr Charles Arnold (‘ Hans the Boatman ’) and his dog are in Sydney. Bland Holt will produce two new London sensations— ‘ A Golden Ladder ’ and ‘ The Union Jack ’ —in Melbourne at Easter. Miss -Clara Thompson was to play the title r6le in the Melbourne Theatre Royal pantomime ‘ Smbad the Sailor ’ instead of Miss Aggie Kelton. The Crawford-Hunter party are in Christchurch doiug good business. The Hieks-Sawyer Minstrels have been doing good business in Dunedin. Mr George Darrell and his myrmidons have held the fort at the Opera House since Boxing Day. Their latest, * Hue and Cry,’ was quite a trump card, and scored an instantanous success. AUTOLTCUS.