AMUSEMENTS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 932, 10 January 1890, Page 10

AMUSEMENTS.

m The Theatre. “THE PAKEHA.” Mr George Darrell’s latest play, " The Pakeha,” saw the footlights Monday night at the Opera House for the first time. Mr Darrell has in his time written many plays, but he has not produced anything better than, if as good as, the somewhat peculiarly named “Pakeha.” The story of the plot is not a brand-new one, bub is very ingeni* on sly handled and with a few improvements. Au old miser is murdered in a hospital by a doctor (Cromby) and a dispenser (Gower), who covet his money-; the crime is fixed on Ernest Montrose, the assistant surgeon, who suffers a vast amount of misery and privation iu consequence, until the dispenser, a bibulous figure drawn with a good deal of truthfulness, is eventually worked on to confess his guilt and Montrose’s innocence through the appearance of a dumb man, twin brother to the murdered miser. Around this story Mr Darrell has weaved the underplots necessary for dramatic effect. The wife of the mnrderoua doctor is loved by Mont, rose, and finally, when Cromby is murdered by Bill Stoomer, an ex-pugilist, all ends happily with the coupls. Mr Darrell himself is also an extra, in the person of a pressman, Samuel Soutar. This pressman is even mne übiquitous and olever than his kind usually are. He is in all the thrilling scenes, and rescues everybody; and be is withsl a very gay and dashing Bohemian. Necessarily this Jack has bis Jill in Lilian Gower, the second daughter of the dispenser. Also there are the two essential comic lovers, Moggy O’Shanneaey and Dave Styles, and a host of others too numerous to mention. To be hypercritical, one might object that the language is a trifle too heavy occasionally, but allowances must be made in deference to what is the fashion in drama nowadays. On the other hand it must be admitted that Mr Darrell has made an exceedingly good play of “ The Pakeha.” The dialogue generally is very bright, and of sensation there is plenty, an escape from prison, and the sticking up of the gold escort beiDg the leading incidents in that respect. For the last-mentioned occurrence a coach drawn by two horses was used, aud subsequently Soutar and Montrose escaped by

“double banking” on horseback, galloping I across the stage in great style and introducing that particular business perhaps for the first time on recoid. As might have been expected, this scene was very well received, and, when the curtain fell, Mr Darrell'vi as called before the curtain and greeted quite enthnsia3tical'y. Apart from it's sensation, however, “The Pakeha” is a highly meritorious production. The romantic surroundings of a goldfield have provided the author with plenty of material as yet unworked; and the plot itself, as will be obvious, opens up to the dramatist a vast field of probabilities. The result of it all i 3 a play which, as a melodrama, is much superior to very many English sensational successes which we see in this Colony, because, while it is as lively and entertaining, it is more honest. It was beautifully dressed, moreover, and some of the scenery was exceptionally fine. The acting generally was first class, ample justice being done to all the parts. Mr Frank Gerald had in Montrose a class of part which is very familiar, but he played it with a great deal of vigour, without being lead heavy, and in a gentlemauly style. Mr F. 0. Appleton plays anything well, and his Gower was an exceedingly good specimen of bi 3 ability. Mr Chalmers, who was Bichard Cromby, makes a picturesque and very wicked villain, and Mr R. Greville acted the part of the dumb witness capitally. Mr Farrell, as Samuel Soutar, was necessarily “all there,” and represented that talented follower of a great but underrated profession with much freedom and dash. Mrs Darrell’s Isabel Gower was a conscientious and sound performance, and Miss Maud Appleton was appropriately fascinating as her younger sister. Moggy and Dave Stoyles were ably represented by Miss Mabel Tracey and Mr Berkeley- It only remains to add that the stage management and other necessary but unpoetic accessories wore blameless; also that “calls"’ were given at the end of each act. “ The Pakeha” (which certainly ought to have another name at once) will do. It will bo played till the end of the week, and will be well patronised if it gets its due. The Hugos. —Mr Charles Hugo’s company paid a farewell visit to Wellington on Saturday night, and had a very large audience at the Theatre Royal. An excellent programme was submitted, and carried out in good style, encores being frequent and imperative. A comic song competition which had been announced fell through, there being no entries. During the evening Mr Hugo briefly thanked his audience for their patronage, and intimated that he would probably return to Wellington in two or three months. Mr Oscae, Smith’s Company. —Mr Oscar Smith, the popular ventriloquist, who has recently severed his connection with Mr Charles Hugo’s Company, will take a benefit on Saturday night. It Lad been proposed to have the performance this c'-ening, but it has been decided to postpone it pending the arrival of new talent engaged fur the Company Mr Smith is forming for a New Zealand tour. The Darrells. — “ Potter of Texas ” saw the final performance of a good run on Saturday night. The piece seemed to exhibit prominently Mrs Darrell’s taleuta as an actress, and Mr J. J. Kennedy’s representation of Sampson Potter was another great feature of the production. THEATRICAL NOTES. Phineas T. Barnum is about the cleverest man who ever ran a show. A month or two ago, immediately npon his arrival id Loudon with * the greatest show on airth,’ Mr Barnum was interviewed by all the big papers, and then, to crown all, ho was tendered a ‘ grand banquet of welcome,’ at which the Right Hon. the Earl of Kilmorey presided, supported by Lord Lord Granville Gordon, Sir John Monckton, Bir J. D. Astley, Sir W. Marriott, Mr George Augustus Sala, Mr W. P. Frith, R.A., Admiral Inglefield, the First Secretary to the American Legation, Sir Somers Vine, Dr Russell, Mr Linley Sambourne, Mr Oscar Wilde, and numerous other celebrities. Barnum’s health was proposed by Mr Sala, who is said to have contrasted him with such showmen as Julius Caesar, Alexander, and Napoleon Bonaparte. Mr Charles Warner proceeds from Auckland to Melbourne, and will produce several novelties at the Princess in the latter city.

Miss Myra Kemble’s London debut, of which the success was cabled the other day, was in a drama called ‘ The Man and the Woman,’ originally written by Robert Buchanan for his sister-in-law, Miss Harriett Jay. Something in the Adam and Eve line, evidently. Grattan Riggs’ farewell performances are so occasional that they remind one of similar affairs arranged by Mr Vincent Crummels for Nicholas Nickleby’s final appearance as an actor. Mr Riggs is a better stayer than the fiery Nicholas. Probably he hasn’t got anybody to come down to the coach and cry ‘Farewell, my lion-hearted boj%’ but he has something a great deal better, in the shape of a very fine purse of sovereigns. On the occasion of his most recent farewell numerous prominent persons assembled on the stage and gave the guileless Grattan a bag full of money and a nice address. Mr Riggs is now in Tasmania playing ‘Shin Fane,’ ‘ The Irish Detective,’ and other.gems of modern dramatic literature. After all Mr Riggs deserves all this ceremony and laudation, for he really is a particularly clever Irish comedian—equal to the best, perhaps, that the colonies have seen. Unquestionably he is the best New Zealand has seen, for neither Wheatleigh nor Boucicault were his equals for all round work. The great Dion was a very good Con the Shanghraun, and a great Shann the Post, certainly, but he hadn’t got the range that Grattan Riggs has. With ‘Potter of Texas’ Mr George Darrell revived the public confidence, which had not been exactly concreted by ‘ The Forlorn Hope. Let us Bay right here, what everyone acknowledges to be troth, that the success of ‘ Potter ’ was largely due to the very fine acting of Messrs Hill and Clifford as Niccovie and Osman Ali. These gentlemen were highly and appropriately viljg-ipgus

ana richly deserved the shooting they got every evening. Mr John Sheridan, the hero ot ‘Fun on the Bristol,’ is still perpetrating that enormous theatrical joke on the euliglitened people of unfeGorated Australasia. tie has been at Melbourne for some weeks now, and his proud and cruel boast is that he has plaved the ‘ piece ’ ten years right off. Mr George C. Miln, the American, h.i3 give.n up acting, and started a lec uring and reading tour. Mr Gam pier has had to cut down the new drama ‘Judge Not ’ a great deal. It would have played four liourn, and Mr Ds thought the people of Melbciirne mightn’t care to sit it out. The late H. B. Farnie, the oom’c dramatiet, left property valued at £2.3,07”. The Dunedin papers are loud in praise of Mr Frank Thornton’s ‘ Private Secrotary,’ and the usually indifferent Daily Times says Mr Thornton's is ‘a very scholarly and realistic performance.’ Mias Ada L'-e, who plays one of the young ladies, is a sister of Miss JeDnie, of that ilk. Mr Corlesse’a Cattermole is also very highly praised.. The same journal says of Wirth’s circns : * The members of the troupe include three clowns —Messrs John Vs irth, Joe Walhalla, and Gus St. Leon ; while the brothers Wirth and Misses Muriates, Madeline and little Edith Wirth, and Ida Vernon are respectively acrobats and equestrians of very considerable merit. In addition to the acrobatic feats of the Wirth Brothers, the feats iu thi3 line of the Walhalla Brothers, the St. Leon Brothers, and Matthews are of an unusually attractive nature.’ Ellen Terry’s son (whose stage name is Gordon Craig) has made a very successful d6but 33 De Valerie in ‘ Saint Denis.’ Mr Charles Wyndham, the celebrated English actor who is now in New York, did not-make a great hit in ‘David Garrick’ there. The people of New York wanted something livelier, and so after a week's trial * David Garrick went down and * The Candidate' came up. ‘ Piuk Dominoes ’ has been successfully revived in London. The Jenolan Oaves at the Now Zealand Exhibition have attracted large crowds of visitors. A local paper says of the show : ‘The preparation of this part of the show had been necessarily shrouded in mystery, and amongst those who first passed the gloomy portals there was observable a certain amount ot nervousness, as if they were not quite sure whether they were ever > come out alive. But they all did come out very much alive—to the enchauting views of a hew South Wales fairyland which they had seen ; and incontinently went away and fetched their sisters and their cousins and their aunts to such an extent that the place has been thronged ever since, some 4,000 having passed through yesterday. The bays devoted to the representation of these caves have been fixed up inside with an artistic arrangement of canvas to look exactly as if bung with stalactites, and at one end, by the aid of water and mystic light, the arrangement of the scene is so realistic as to convey the impression that one is actually making an underground exploration. All round the sides of the ‘cave’ are peep-holes in the walls through which the explorer obtains views of scenes in the Jenolan Caves—some photographic and others in oils—through powerful lenses, so that ns one looks the impres ion is that one is actually looking through openings in the rock at distant parts of the caves. The pictures and scenic appointments are the work of Mr W. J. Wilson, artist, of Sydney, who has been employed by the Commissioner specially for this work. That he has succeeded absolutely the most casual glance will show. The Commissioner is to be highly complimented upon the result of this enterprise, and is deserving of the thanks of the public, who are by this means afforded (free, gratis, aud for nothing) an opportunity of a realistic visit to one of the most celebrated sights in Australia. Williamson, Garner, and Musgrove’s two Melbourne attractions— ‘ Cinderella ’ at the Royal, and * That Dr Cupid ’ at the Princess —have been an immense go during the holidays. ’Arry Rickards has been playing to good business in Melbourne. Bland Holt is in Brisbane, doing well. Miss Ada Ward has departed from Australia for London. Madame Melba will get a thousand guineas for singing four times at Monte Carlo this month. Mr Titheradgo'a son. a very young infant, has made his ddbut in Sydney. Autolycits.