OPERA HOUSE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1189, 14 December 1894, Page 28

OPERA HOUSE.

“ SOWING THE WIND.”

It is a pretty room, elegantly furnished, looking out on a pleasant country road. A young woman and an old gentleman are talking earnestly within, while outside the French window stand two men, one young, the other old, in attitudes betokening excitement. There has evidently been a scene of four, and there is clearly going to bo another of two. The young woman has given up her lover, the young fellow outside, who is in despair. The old gentleman Avithiu, who is his adopted father, has objected on the score that the girl’s mother was not respectable, and the poor young thing has discovered that it is i/rue. So she has given up her lover, recognising the difficulties of the position. They will point at her, mock at her, tell stories about her ; all his life will bo spent in defending her from insult, and even when she is a faded old woman there will be no cessation of the torment. All this she has said with great bitterness, and a vehement emotion which measures the extent of the terrible sacrifice she is making. Her lover, a fine manly young fellow, has poured out words of love and truth. She received them with rapture, but will do nothing more than think of them as a precious memory. And that she has said so prettily and touchingly that all who heard her were touched. And so it came to pass that the young man went out with his adopted father’s friend, and the young lady remained in the room with the old. gentleman. She has made her sacrifice, and she wonders what more the old fellow can want. He makes the most delicate offer of pecuniary help ; does it in a finished, courtly, inimitable way as only one of nature’s noblemen could do. Nevertheless it stings her, for sho has a proper pride, and rouses her to passionato protest. What Avrong has she done ? Tho wrongdoer is her fathor who deserted her mother, left her to perisli while ho lived in luxury. As for herself, sho has lived with her mother, and sho has brought her soul through evil surroundings bright and pure. And now she is cast olf. What is to become of her P The despair of her accent and gesture is terrible to see. Tho old man is gentle with her. Oh ! so gentle. Ho soothes her, pities her, reasons with her, hut shows no sign of relenting. Her protest rises to passionato complaint of hor wrongs and her mother’s wrongs, and passes on to vehement, splendid denunciation of the wrongs of her sex. What a command of language she has, and what splendid language it is, so pointed, and telling, and epigrammatic; and how noble is her face, lightening with scorn, and how grand her gestures ! She rouses the old gentleman at last, who takes tho side of hor father. This protest must be put down at all cost. Ho matches her vohemenco, ho finds language as copious and ' woll turned, ho puts tho case without mercy, lie is groat in his righteous vindication. The scene ivories up to fever heat betweon the two. Not a word of scolding, not a suspicion of rant—how could there bo when Mrs Brough is playing the young lady, and Mr Titheradgo the old gentleman P How could there bo, anything but the very, highest art, which is nature itself ?—tho battle of the sexes is fought out unsparingly on both sides. . Presently ho ends a glowing period with a scathing denunciation of this dead woman, this “ Baby Brabant,” as sho was called. “Stop. Wo are calling things and people by their proper names. Speak no slander of my mother, and call her by hor proper name—call her Helen Gray.” It is a magnificent outburst. “ Helen G ray!” Tho old man turns white as death, the two men rush in from outside, ho falls into thoir arms and is taken away helpless, tho curtain falls and the intense feeling of tho audience finds vent in long-continuod applause. Such is the great scone of the play. The climax discloses the fact that tho old irentloman is tho fathor of the young girl. For all his staid and reverend * demeanour ho had had a love affair in his youth. He had loved this IlelenGray, he had listened too lightly to slanders, ho had deserted her. He had sown tho wind and now is reaping the whirlwind. As a matter of course the discovery removes all obstacles to tho marriage of tho young people. There is a scene of great tenderness —vory charmingly played it was — betweon father and daughter, and tho play ends as all good comedies should. It is a magnifieont play, perhaps tho best of tho many good plays of its author, Sydney Grundy : simple in plot, admirable in construction, rich in character, brilliant with pointed dialogue, in places intensely emotional, with tho interest clevorlymaintai nod throughout—altogether a great play. It was excellently staged ftWvi V?f3tuuiydj iVftd tho (voting was very fine

allround. All of which accounts for the brilliant success it was with the very large audience which filled every part of the theatre. Mrs Brough’s Rosamond is decidedly tho finest charactor she has ever played here, broad in conception, full of fire and intensity, declamatory and tender, perfect in every detail. Mr Titheradgo, who played the old gentleman (Mr Brabazon), made as great a success of the part in its way as he did of the Abbe Dubois in the “ Village Priest ” last year —an admirable character study of the highest finish it was. As Mr Watkin, the testy old cynic who does so much mischief and repents at last in sorrow, Mr Brough added to tho long list of quaint characters he so worthily sustains. Mr Carey was very effective as Lord Petworth, tho courtly, determined old roue who supplies the villainy of the piece. Mr Ward gave us simple manly earnestness as Ned Annesley, the young lover. Mr Dorrington dressed and acted the part of Sir Richard Cursitor, a raking young booby of the “ Tom and Jerry ” period, in admirable style. Mr Clitherow was the formal deferential old family solicitor (Mr Dealcin) to the life. Miss Romer and Miss Noble supplied some of the humorous element as Mrs and Miss Fretwell, prudish mother and giggling daughter of the City of Barchester, wherein the scene is chiefly laid, and Miss Wilinot was effective as the uncompromising Bridget who has a short way with all callers objectionable to her young mistress, Miss Rosamond.

“ AUNT JACK.” The farce in three acts drew a very large audience last Wednesday, and amused from the beginning" of the first to the end of- the third, which is extraordinary, because farces are not supposed to have a vitality equal to three acts. A farce is a thing in which the dramatist is set free from all rules, and subjected to the one condition of being funny. If ho can make audiences laugh more or less uproariously from first to last, he succeeds. If he cannot, he fails. As it was once thought that no one could laugh for much more than three - quarters of an hour, farces were worn short, so to speak. But the modern tendency to overdo a good thing has stretched out the farce to the dimensions of the comedy. . But tho stretching process has largely altered tho character of the farce. This one, for example, is not an uproarious farce, and before it finishes it merges into burlesque of the extravagant order, and throughout it displays many of the qualities of comedy. The first two acts are good comedy, in fact, and tho third runs on the lines of " Trial by Jury,’’.being an amusing burlesque of the Burnaud order, in which the most daring liberties are taken with everything. On the whole, then, it is not quite fair to call “ Aunt Jack ” a farce. In spite of the handicap, however, the play keeps the interest, but if it was a little shortened it would keep it better. That it was capitally acted goes, of course, without saying. The lion’s share of the work falls to Mr and Mrs Brough. The lady has most of it, and last night versatility was the stamp she put upon her work. In her hands the plaintiff in tho great case was a vory charming and a very clever woman, exceedingly vivacious and brilliant. No wonder the opposing counsel fell over head and ears in love with her. Mr Brough, as the confirmed and slightly cynical bachelor, Mr Bone, who bewails the fact that his hair is on the wane, managed that part of his duty without any difficulty. Both managed it with an intensely diverting comicality that frequently brought down the house, and kept it in a perpetual roar of laughter. Many other happy things Mr Broxigh managed to do also, in his quaint dry way, which set off the points of the piece to perfection. Breadth of caricature without vulgarity was tho distingushing feature of Mr Carey’s performance of the character of tho defendant and company promoter Colonel Tavenor. Miss Temple had everything that a self - possessed, shrewd, wealthy going American widow of tho parvenu order should have, except tho American accent. _Mr Ward was effective as the young briefless barrister, who, not having briefs, must needs take a wife, and as his young wife, Miss Noble was natural, and therefore charming. Mr Dorrington played the noble lord who loves the wealthy fair American, whose destiny it is, as he remarks, to marry a duke, with polished comicality. Mr Clithorow was the very country lawyer the author intended, something which is only prevented from being the clown in the pantomime by a liberal sprinkling of Gilbertian polish 5 the jury and the Court in the last act were admirably and most comically drilled, and Mr Titheradge gave an admirable presentment of tho British Judge of caricature, that is to say, with all tho outward show of dignity and high-bred accent, and all the inward grace of purest burlesque. On the whole a slender play abounding in comical situations and sparkling with wit. If you want a hearty laugh go and seo it.