NOTES BY LORGNETTE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1248, 30 January 1896, Page 18

NOTES BY LORGNETTE.

Mr Walter Bentley writes me from Brisbane to say that he is "fairly settled down " in the Queensland capital, and has charge of an elocution cla3s at the Technical College, besides a number of private pupils. He has also started a dramatic 'society, whose first performance will take place next mouth. Mr Bentley is also a contributor to a Brisbane weekly called "Plashes " I hear that from private letters received from the Cape by the last mail it is probable that Mr Wm. Holloway will bring his ''legitimate" company on to Australia and New Zealand after his six months' bour of the South African colonies is ended. The company includes some first English talent. Mr Bland Holt's return season, which eymiuates on Saturday, has been wonderfully successful. Having been out of :own for the last few evenings, I < nly nanaged to see "The Fatal Card" on Tuesday. In my humble'opinion, "The Fatal Card" is not only the best thing Mr Holt has yet given us, but it is one »f the strongest plays, not only in a specacular, but purely dramatic sense, that 9B have had for the past ten years. It t» full of strong situations, based not oerely upon sensational and *' stagey" neidents, but upon purely human taastons. As a rule in this class of B|.a; the. last act is very weak, but in He Fata! Card" the concluding act IRssesses a scene almost unrivalled for ramatic interest. I have not space for detailed comment upon the representaion of the play by the company, but it truck me that I had never seen Mr Baker > such good effect as in this piece. His d fault of over-rapidity of utterance was most entirely absent, and he played the loff manly hero with a vigour and an lteosiry which were never exaggerated. fr "Cosgrove's Jim Dixon was another ood character, and Mr Norman's Marrable Jxcept in the last act, where I thought e hardly made the most, of his opporjnities) was equally good. Miss Boss eserves a word of praise for her Marfcret. In the third act she rose to the tuation and gave us a, splendid bit of motional acting. 'Mis* Watson made a K>re than capable Bletcedes, and Mr and krs HoJt were, as usual, most genuinely ■erting. Holt most goes South; and I wish ini every possible good forrune. fn his wu par tic ii?-iv line lw cateis most generualy f-«r i lie j»..M»c>, m*;.<l In; thoroughly eSaervea the sucoeaa lie achieves. I understand that Messrs Williamson yd Musgrove are inquiring after vacant ites in New Zealand centre?, and that »' early visit may bo expected from ither their pantomime company or the Loyal Comic Opera Company. .My Christchur.di .correspondent writes : -*' Things theatrical in this town are fig stale, and unprofitable. Poverty oi'nt can now only muster about ten ich Johnny Gourlay jjoins the au3t Family for their Dunedin season,, hich opowe on the 27th hist. atthe£Jity a H .-„ \VJH D-overs, who will be reembered a? running the Tivoli Variety jgnpany, has just arrived, per Shank's By, from Dunedin, tvhich city he left eveu days ago —not a bad record. rofessor Davis arrived overland from le West Coact. He has be&n recogised as an old Christchurch boy, hx.ving rved his time at the Lyttelton Tiiaes Bee as a bookbinder. The Professor is* jpil of Chalet, one of the beat ventnlouists that ever came to the colony. It is bt probable that he will give his enterdument till the big guns—iicus and Bland i-.i-n have passed on. -—Fitzgeralds' h »i u taken an office in re Triangle, and <>n Saturday night .it as visited by thousands. The town has een well billed, and a good season is Lmost assured." Bulletin gives portraits of Maude

Beatty as Guiseppe, in " The Gondoliers, 5 " and Marion Mitchell as Stella, in " Tambour Major." Ic also warmly praises the young ladies' singing and dramatic ability.

The Pollards did very bad business at Sydney Criterion. The Company were to have commenced their New Zealand tour at Auckland Opera House last Wednesday in "Paul Jones," but the opening performance has been postponed until next Wednesday. I hope the new tour will be a success. Mr Pollard has engaged the Wellington Opera House for next Christmas.

The rumour goes that Fillis is coming back to Australia. Mrs Fillis i 3 said to be at Home engaging new talent. The two F.'s—Fillis and Fitzgerald—will make things hum in the circus world if they get into anything like active competition.

Fftzgeralds had horribly bad luck n their Wellington season, but they can well afford a temporary set-back. They have made a stack of money out of their new show up to the present, and they've still a big Australian provincial tour before them in which to make some more. They're good fellows, are Dan and To-m, and I wish them heaps of luck.

The Fitzgeralds say that next time they come to Wellington they intend to erect a temporary wooden hippodrome. No mere battling with the Wellington breezes for them, not if they know it.

George Rignold, before leaving Sydney for England, said he intended to "do" all the London theatres, and only atop three or four weeks in London. It will take Rignold more time than that if he wants to "do "all the theatres, besides which he will want to give the halls a visit. He talks of being back in harness again in Australia by Easter, so we may see him in Mionland next winter after all.

After a short but successful season at Brisbane "The Land of the Moa " Company returned to Sydney. They will most likely go on a short provincial tour before appearing at Melbourne Theatre Royal. Wonder when the syndicate's tour is up, and what will be the ultimate profit—if any ?

Madame De Vere Sapio, whom Wellingtonianss wouldn't patronise, has been singing to big audiences at New York, and was to appear at the end of last month with Paderewski. news, sent to Australia by Willie Walshe, late of Montague-Turner's, runs to the effect that Madame Vanderveer Greene had been appearing with the New York Orchestral Society ; that Arthur Lawrence, once with Brough and Boucicault and round New Zealand a few years ago with Wybert Reeve, was playing in an adaptation of Anthony Hope's " Princess of Zenda," under the management of Lytton Sothern, son of "Dundreary" Sothern ; also, Walter Howe, here with Bland Holt, and later on with Hilda Spong, was touring with a company playing " The Fatal C .rd," and that Harry St. Maur (of "Jim the Penman " fame) was with Kyrle Bellew and Mrs Brown Potter.

Mrs Langtry's new ma*sher is said to be no less than the Earl of S y, a nobleman who caused a sensation a fesr years ago by bolting with the wife of a county gentleman. The latter got a divorce, and the Earl duly married the lady. The nobleman is now posing as Mrs Langtry's curf partner, and, after winning a cool i 20,000 at Newmarket recently—so the story goes—they "special trained" and "special boated "it to Paris. Mrs L has seen a good many sides of life since she first obtained the august approval of H.R.H , and came out as a professional beauty.

The. Hist theatre in Australia was opened on the 17ch January, 1790.

John L. Sheridan, "Widow O'Brien" —"O'Breehon, plaze " —and his wife, Miss Gracie Whiteford, are now appearing in India, and (so the Bulletin says) will soon bo ba« k in Australia again. Johnny must bring something now or he will do a fro.-.t.

The St. John Burlesque Company were last week at Timaru

E. J. Lonnen and Alice Lethbridge were doing variety " turns" at Johannesburg when the last mail left the city of the fJitlanders. The Johannesburg papers doo't seem to be particularly struck on the pair. Lonnen was terribly mechanical in ma when here, and as for the fair Alice, well, she can dance gracefully enough, but voiLi ijout.

Brough and Boucicault still survive at Sydney Lyceum despite the heat. " John A'Dreams " has run its course, and wis to be succeeded by a semi farcical comedy, called "The PasßporV founded on Col. Savage's noyel, " My Official Wife."

Williamson and Musgrove seem to have "struck oil" —the phrase is dear to Jimmy—at Melbourne Princess' with their pantomime, " Djin-Djin," a name which suggests a Salvation Army band, but which ie, J. believe, distinctly Japanesery. Elton jhas quite "caught on," again* and regained, his old popularity,

and visitors to the show, especially the ** bald heads," grow dreamily enthusiastic over the sight of Miss Florence Young in—well, a boy's dress.

Mis 3 Dora Mostyn, who was round Now Zealand last year on a tour which ended disastrous'y, is back again with Dan Barry, playing "blood and thunder" at Melbourne Alexandra.

The Fausts, who did very poor business in Christchurch, are now working overland to Dunedin. Johnny Gourlay, late with the defunct Greenwood Company, is now with the Fausts.

The Christchurch Press says that the combination recently travelling in New Zealand as Woodloch's Circus came to a sudden stop in Christchurch, and after being held for some time the tent, ponies, dogs, monkeys, etc., were sold by auction in Christchurch on Thursday last under bill of sale. Prices rea'ised were ridiculously low, the tent, seats, etc., being snapped up by a local publican for .£l6, while the live stuck went for "cats' meat money."

Newbury Spada Company are still down the West Coast, South Island.

How amusement matters in South Africa have been affected by the Transvaal affair we do not know, but here are a few notes from the Cape (condensed from the Syndey Referee) : —Frederick Villiers gave four lectures at Johannesburg, under the management of Mr Bonamiei ; Lethbridge and Lonnen are members of the music hall company at Johannesburg ; Fillis did big business at Capetown at Christmas ; Charles Arnold was to open at Johannesburg on December 21, in " Hans, the Boatman ; Willison's Circus, recently at Delagoa Bay, has left for India.

Two Australian papers, which Lorgnette might name, are in the habit of taking P. and P. items without acknowledgment. For my own part, Australia l>eing my main source cf news, I take a lot" of news from its press, but as my readers will no doubt observe, I always endeavour to state origin of same.

A " Trilby " Company playing in Texas happened at Tyler in that State on the daj' of the burning at the stake of a negro assailant, and what was called the "counter attraction" interfered with the theatrical matinee. There are strange juxtapositions of entertainment even in the nineteenth century.

I heard an extraordinary explanation, writes a London correspondent, of how certain young ladies on the stage have acquired a warm interest in the mining market. A gentleman who had a great deal to do with the market, and has drawn his pile from it, is a devoted admirer of the drama in its lighter forms. Of an evening, when he has dined well and is in a good humour with all the world, he has sometimes taken a batch of scrip out of his pocket and made a present of it to such of his friends as happened to be around him. In this way young ladies and others have become possessed of South African shares which were worthless in some cases, and, in other cases, have stood the owners in thousands of pounds.

Lord Sholto Douglas, who some months ago startled his few intimates on the Pacific Coast, where he was a sojourner, by marrying a young woman who was supporting herself in one of the vaudeville theatres, figures in a new light (says the New York Dramatic Mirror). It appears that after marriage he was not able to take care of hi? wife, and she was compelled to again seek a theatrical engagement. The young lord not only overcame his scruples against his wife's appearance, but considered favourably a proposition that he should also figure in the play in which she was cast. He will, however, have nothing to do but to draw a salary for going upon the in a supprnurnary capacity, it beii.g particularly specified that he has but to " pose." The pictures of Lord Sh lto that have found their way in f .o the American daily ni'.*B]iMpc!3 have illustrated him in the. gear of ihe cowboy, in which ho seems to the manner born.

Under the title of " My First Appearance on the Stage," Mrs de Navarro describes in The Lady the trials she .successfully combated in following out her conviction tint the stage presented to her 'he opportunity for a splendid career. Her debut took place in Louisville, Kentucky, on November 27, ISfa, when she appeared as Juliet. The performance was arranged upon two days'notice time for but a single rehearsal—and the aspiring Kentucky girl was jubilant when the theatre and a stock company were offered her, upon condition that she should phvy without pay. Mrs de Navasu-o evidently did not suffer from "stage frigh ," for she writes that she stood impatiently waiting for iler ." cue " to go on. At last it came. "Then in a flash I was on the stage, conscious only of a wall of yellow light before me, and a burst of prolonged applause." The performance was filled with rather depressing incidents ; one of the players forgot his lines and had to be prompted by the youthful star; Romeo neglected to bring his dagger, and a hairpin had to be substituted, while the lamp t*iat hung in Jul|et')i tomb /ell, and badly burned her

hands and arms. "Despite of these," she writes, " the night was a success, and 1 knew that my stage career had begun in earnest."