NOTES BY “LORGNETTE.”

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1508, 24 January 1901, Page 22

NOTES BY “LORGNETTE.”

" Miss- Nance ' O’Neiii’s repertoire for her first season in. Wellington includes “Magda ” - -Elizabeth/ Queen o Englahd, ‘“Fedora,” “La Tosca,” “Hedda Gabler/*- “School for Scandal,” “Camille and' “Peg Woffington. 5 ' It will be seen that the repertoire includes plays by Sudermann,' Sardou, Lumas, fils, Charles Read© and Henrik xbsen.

ft ft * * * ■• “M.A.P.' 5 has the following concerning Mr Arthur Williams; the English actor : —“lt was in those days that he visited a Jew who kept a second-hand clothes shop in Houndsditch, ‘ in search of costumes. One laced coat took his fancy, and! he inquired the price. ‘ Only tliree-and-six,” ' said Isaacs ; “fchree-and-six for a coat like that!—it's giving-; it away. 5 Williams gave a narrower inspection. “Look” he said','“it is'all moth-eaten. “What's that?” “It is full of moths.” “Moths! 55 cried the Jew, “well, what do yon expect for three-and-six ? Humming birds ?”

Snazelle is back in Melbourne again ■with a'big naval ‘biograph show, which includes, so it is said* some very novel features.

Maud Hewson, formerly with the Pollards, is now a member of Jones and Lawrence’s Variety Company in Westralia.

ft ft ft ft ft . Mrs Naosmore Morris, the Melbourne society lady here a-s a member of the first “Sign of /the Cross” company, is getting on well in London. She is now playing lead in Oscar Berringer's new play, “The Plot of His Story,” produced by George Alexander at the St. dames’s.

The Broughs are doing well m Calcutta, so Kellan Hamilton writes to say. ‘(The Liars” drew very big bouses. The company remains in Calcutta until February 10, and then, go East, visiting in soooessidrL Rangoon, Singapore, Shanghai and ‘Hongkong/ at which last-mentioned city the tour ends and the company disbands.' ■ \

‘ The company of the Savoy Theatre, identified of late years with Gilbert and Sullivan opera, contributed, the prettiest of tributes t-o ’Arthur Sullivan’s funeral show. A circle of white flowers framing a seven-stringed harp with the fifth string broken—the composer having died in his fifth decade. • And somebody wrote a couple., of “In Memoriam” verses, Avere; nob.-too had: Sleep softly., . We who dive .shall hear t :songs. -that you. gave us while you walked, the earthj Some.exquisite voice shall echo every day ..Music you made for sorrow or for ... mirth. Sleep quietly, but'hear, as in a, dream, i Magical music of the enchanted night: Sleep on, and, as you listen, may it : ; seem - They, too, were yours, the songs youi did! hot write. • • -•* • • • * *■ . . * ' * . . “What kind of reception did 1 get m Dunedin ?” says Donald Macdonald, the returned war-lecturer. “Well, every third man there is a. Macdonald, and every tenth man Donald IMacdonald, so you can judge for yourself.” * # * * * ‘ The only new thing under the s un, says a Sydney paper, is the outrageously funny scene of Bland Holt’s home, built on a right-of-way. Just as Bland is cuddling his new wife a oliaw-bacon coolly walks across, then a coster, a man comes on with a donkey, another with a. bulldog, which chases Bland round the furniture. The whole is a piece of impossible grotesquerie, but it tickles the diaphragm with its memories for a week after - I don’t expect the ‘Herod’ of Mr Stephen Phillips will go down in the colonies, though I believe a larg;e price has been offered for the Australian rights. Unrelieved' blank verse, even when lightened by a series of incomparable stage pictures, grows tedious in time. I confess with shame I fell into a gentle doze more than once.

The chorus girls of New York, so certain American papers say, have discovered an additional means of income. They are acting as models for millinery publications and millinery stores, the portraits appearing in the one, while they themselves are walking advertisements for the others. It now happens that “Cadet” girls, “Geisha” girts, and “Casino 5 girls, and all the other “girls”' earn two or three dollars a morning by .simply wearing the swell hats of “Brown up town, and. the quality swell hats of Smith down town. - ’ It is not only the money, but it is an education in hats. The chorus girls, it is maintained, are found, as a rule, infinitely better models than the girls rrom the shops. fhev are accustomed to looking pleasant—it is their business—and trie camera has no terrors for them. They take & delight m handsome hats, and linow flow to put one on. sfr s£* ft ft

popular novel, entitled, “When Knighthood was in Flower,” by Charles Majors, the American author, has been dramatised, and will shortly be produced m Chicago, U.BA. The scenes are laid, in Bingiand in the reign ox Henry VIII., and the play is liberally interspersed with oaths ot that period. Miss Julia Marlowe, the well-known actress, who was recently selected to fill the role of Mary ’1 liuor, refuses to appear in the play unless the “swear words” are eliminated. Mr Majors asserts that the English ladies of the Tudor period frequently said “damn,” andjihat Alary Tudor used the word to excess. Miss Marlowe, however, says that Mary Tudor may have used such expressions, but she will not. This question of stage ethics is being vigorously discussed by the local newspapers.

A case of considerable interest to play-goers was tried by Judge Luanley . Smith, Q.C., in the Westminster County Court, on November 29. Mr C. F. S. Pollock, solicitor, or Bedford How, and three lad 7 relatives sought to recover 2os each, as damages against the moss Empires, Limited. jVXf Pollock ssid lie puvcjicisecl four tickets, at 5s each, for October 26, for the London Hippodrome. They Were numbered in “B” row. Oil his going with his aunt and two ladies who had come up from the country, he found the seats oecuped, and though he was offered a, box and his money back, he contended he was entitled to the seats he had paid for. They ought to have been kept for him. Mr Philip J. Rutland, for the defendants, said there was an unfortunate mistake, and as soon as it was ?discovered the people ivith tickets for “A 55 row were- occupying plaintiff’s seats in “B” row, an effort to get them out was made, but unsuccessfully. An offer to give them a box or the value of two guineas and to return the money was refused. What Mr Pollock wanted was that the persons occupying his seats should be forcibly ejected, but that would have caused a riot. His Honor said it was very annoying to be treated like tins. Unless those seats were kept tr * •? was nothing to prevent them being sold more than once. Mr Rutland : We offered the box. Mr Pollock said ha ob,n oted to the box as being draugury. JI is friends came from- the omi.rty. Mr A. Cook, the manager,, sard;.siuni y they repeated the offers to return the money and to 'mti tl •? j hintiff any seats on any occasion he. chose. His Donor found for the 1 larnviif m cat o case f>: £1 damages nJ cos’s.

Fes tin iog, !< e a mr hr of, o’, her < i.t-of-the-way places in Wales, possesses, says a London paper, some intolerant and ignorant people who would close the town, to all theatrical performances. The Urban District Council has discussed a request made by the Free Church Council that the assembly rooms should not be lent to dramatic companies. All sorts of wild statements are made by both sides. *' The chairman, amid roars of laughter, said that when; ministers and deacons went to London they frequented the well-known theatres. Another member piously ejaculated, “We want not the ungodly crew here!” Cries of “Shame!’’ greeted the statement that te last play in Festiniog was witnessed by several deacons, who enjoyed the performance immensely. Eventually the Council decided to refer all applications from dramatic companis to the Finance Committee, instead of leaving the matter to the discretion of the caretaker.

Among playgoers, says a London correso on dent, the forthcoming marriage of Mr Forbes Robertson is an interesting event, because, according to gossip, he has been so often “engaged,” to no seeming purpose, and also for the reason that it is hoped he will now get a London thatre of liis own and settle down to steady artistic management. Miss Gertrude Elliott is quite young. She made a success in comedy at the Court Theatre, and is on tour with Mr Robertson, The sister .of the Miss Elliott who married Mr Nat Goodwin, she is American, and will thus join together two theatrical families. I see that one of my contemporaries mentions Mr Robertson as the son of Tom Robertson, the dramatist. These families are mno way related. The daughter of Mr and Mrs lan Robertson has just entered tip on the stage as a profession, and is in Sir Henry Irving’s company. lan Robertson is Forbes’s brother, for whom he acts as stage manager, and his wife is the daughter of Mr Joseph Knight, editor of “Notes and Queries.”

Defining the art of acting, in an article in the November “Cenury,” Mr Bronson Howard, the veteran playwright, lays stress on the fact that it does not- consist in doing; things on the stage as they are done in real life, but in seeming to do so. The ar of acting, he says, is the art of seeming to move, speak and appear on the stage a-s the character assumed moves, speaks and appears in real life, under the circumstances indicated in the play, in the word “seeming” lie nearly all the difficulties, the intricacies, the technicalities of acting. The writer is assuming no special or superior wisdom as an “expert” ; for every actor, from the greatest of them down to the second month student, knows that the definition we had first agreifcl on is inaccurate Move, sneak and appear as the character doesr Real life ? One might as well say that a painter’s art is tc use gray stone to represent an old church in Rome, instead of mere pigments mixed with oil. The painter appeals to- the eye by artificial, not by natural means. So, the actor’s art is to make tlie people in the audience, some of them a. hundred l feet or more array, think that* he is moviiw speaking and appearing like the character assumed ; and, in nine cases out of ten, the only way o make them think this is. to be not doing it; to be doing something else—something that 3011 would never dream of unless you were taught it, or learned it from long and weary experience without a teacher. » * * *

Nellie Stewart, says the “Bulletin,” gets a startling effect with her final costume in “Cinderella.” The shapely form of the principal boy is encompassed from neck to toe in one close-fitting silk garment of tfie same glowing pink as her naked arms. Over this is the coat of crystal—a garment nothing more than a yard-and-a-half of scintillating jewels, with a hole for the wearer’s neck. The sides are completely open, affording more than glimpses of Nellie’s sides, and it terminates just below Tier broad hips.

w ft * ** , -* * o Arthur Roberts was never at a loss for a retort. Years ago, when poor Farnie was alive and stage managing at the Avenue, he called for rehearsal the late Miss Wadman, Henry Bracy and Arthur Roberts. They all came late, Roberts last of all. Farnie, hi his broad Scotch, was blowing up the two first-corners, when Arthur Roberts arrived, and he turned the torrent of his wrath upon him. and said he was the worst of the three. “Here is -Wathnan an hour behind time, then Bracy, and now you last of all. What am Ito do with you?” “Why,” replied Roberts “back me for a place, you old Juggins.”

ft ft ft ft * , Actors, says the author of “Chestnuts.” a recently published! book of stage gossip, frequently fail to distinguish between genuine and false applause. I was standing next to the manager of a music hall on the night of the first appearance of a comedian. He was a dreadfully dull dog, but the manager, anxious to let him down lightly, turned to us, and said: “Make a- noise, boys; give him a hand,” and we all appla-uded, most vigorously. Later on at the bar, when the comedian was refreshing himself after his labours, he remarked) to the manager apropos to his success with, the audience: “I do go, gurtnor, don’t I?” “Yes,” replied the manager, -“you do —on Saturday!”

. Lottie Collins is quite a success at Melbourne Bijou, and 1 shows that even a serin comic may be something of an artist. Lottie gets her best effects by the use of sharp contrasts, and the idea is best demonstrated in her little widow ditty. She comes on in black and! weeds, a handkerchief pressed to her tearful eyes, and' sadly enlightens the audience to the fact that she has lost another husband. Then, when her grief has soaked in, she swoops on the chorus, grabs up her black skirt,- show, ing red flaring underwear, breaks into a mad dance, and hilariously expresses her determination to land another hubby when the chance comes. In another song, she snatches up a crimson riding skirts exhibiting black trousers underneath, and the effect is astonishing. This game of contrasts made Ta-ra-ra boom, and is the secret of Lottie’s success.

George Bernard Shaw, casually disposed of by “F.” in the “Bulletin” as an unacted dramatist, a humbug and a decadent, is publishing, says Melbourne “Critic,” a third book of plaj's, to be called “Plays for Puritans.” Shawls “Plays, Pleasant and Unpleasant,” have had an enormous sale, hence the third volume. “F.” is so little a literary man that success to him means the loud appreciation of the theatre-going crowd. This test would , damn the plays of Henley and Stephenson, and their “Robert Macaire” and “Beau Austin” are, one might venture to say. a trifle better than “Charley’s Aunt.” As for Bernard Shaw, hi-s “Candida” is the best play that has been written in England during this generation. No man of literary tastes who loves humour should be without Shaw’s “Plays, Pleasant and Unpleasant.”

Nothing, continues Mr Howard, can be conceived more absolutely unlike a delicate, beautiful and refined woman in a drawing-room than the painted young creature, with dark shadows about her eyes and flagrant carmine on her lips

and cheeks, who looks, to her companion; on the atage, like a gaudily-painted! woodf y on doll. She speaks_ to him confiden-' tially, three feet away, so that every man in the back row of the auditorium' can hear what she says; moving her feat-% ures, in the coquettish, by-play of timid' love, with the well-defined and positive motions of a jumping jack pulled by a' string. If the most graceful and delicate of our actresses should carry thetechnical methods of the stage to an afternoon reception she would be a curiosity and a “holy terror.”

*• * •* * * . As a literary effort, says a writer in Melbourne “Critic,” Musgrove’s pantomime at Melbourne Princess is bad., From beginning to end there is not a line spoken that is worthy of the tradition of British burlesque, althougm those traditions were never very high. As an effort of humour the pantomime is slowly but surely passing, away, and. its place is being filled by a nondescriptsomething, the strongest _ features of which are glare, glitter and elegant legs..Charming dresses, pretty pictures and. symmetrical legs are delightful things in a way, but even when set to a little music they must fail with a good deal or emphasis as a whole entertainment forany person with brains enough to fill an ordinary eggeup. These are adjuncts of a pantomime, and when they become the pantomime and the re-st the; adjuncts satisfaction muet remain re-1 mote from the souls of the bulk of thepatrons. I suppose, there are still inert in England who can write clever pan-, tomimes, but evidently they are engaged in the butter trade since the men whor should be engaged in the butter trade are busy writing the pantomimes. “Cinderella” comes from England, and it represents a long step downwards in the rapid decadence of the literary side and! the good humour of these Christmas en_ tertainments. Are tv© becoming a stupid people, with no decent sense of humour. or have theatrical managers misunderstood 1 the popular taste? I prefer to think the latter to be the true view, for the reason that when good, extravagant fun peeps in anywhere the theatregoers give it an uproarious greeting- ..

“'A Message From Mars” at Sydney Palace, says an exchange, is a pretty and amusing play, but whether it is strong enough to hold the Australian public during a long season is not immediately evident. It is handsomely staged 1 and cleverly played. Herbert Ross, the leading man, pourtrays Horace Parker, the selfish man, very cleverly. Herbert Stephenson acts the Messenger From Mars in good style. W. F. Hawtrey plays a tramp realistically. Ruby Ray, the leading lady, is pretty and bright. Thos. Holding is a tall, good-looking juvenile with a fine voice. All the other people are young andi smart. Hawtrey has also got the Australian rights of “Husbands and Wives,”. “Saucy Sally,” “Tom, Lick and Harry,” “Lady Huntworih’s “My Friend the prince.” “His Excellency the Governor,” “In the Soup,” “Ooralie Limited,” “Make Way for the Ladies,” and! “Tenterhooks.” The Hawtrey Company goes from the Palace to Brisbane Opera House. They open at laidc Royal in July. A season of eleven weeks follows at Melbourne Bijou. Tasmania and New Zealand are then visited. Return visits to Sydney and'Melbourne are then paid, and! the Australa--sian tour concludes with a season in West Australia.

Thinking the war embers nearly burned out, Mr W. J. Holloway is leaving London for South Africa in. February, ing with him a dramatic company for a prolonged tour. “Quo Vadis” is, to be one prominent feature of his repertoire' and he intends also, according to a Sydney contemporary, to produce “A. Mich summer Night’s Dream,” with his ter, Miss Julia Sydney,.as Titania. .Mr Charles Arnold 1 found theatrical business in South Africa brisk enough just before fighting beghn, and Mr Holloway ought to find it brisker still afterwards. pie’s nerves must need distraction after they have been for so long breathing the fumes of gunpowder.

The pantomine‘ “Puss in Boots,’’ at the Sydney Tivoli, has caught on so weJ that Mr Rickards is credited with the intention of producing it in other Australian cities at the termination of ns run.

A few "weeks "back the much-admired actress, Miss Maud Jeffries, who was here with Mr Wilson Barrett, had to temporarily surrender her part of Mailamne in the new play, “Herod,” written by the young poet, Stephen Phillips. Lev withdrawal was due to loss of voice, and the “Athenaeum,” commetnting upon the breakdown, implies that it is not surprising, seeing that Miss Jeffries’s expenditure of vocal energy was terrific. The Australasian” says Miss Jeffries certainiy did not exhibit that tendency in Australia. .. „ «

Mr and Mrs Kendal have accepted for production a three-act- come ay of modem life by Lady Colin Campbell and Miss Clo Graves, the scene of winch is laid in Cornwall.

\ telegram from New York, dated November 27, records the latest success of Sarah Bernhardt. It reads as foilmve : —Mine. Bernhardt and M. Coqueiin made their reappearance on the Am-

erican stage at the Garden Theatre last night, in Rostands “L’Aiglon,” before one of the most brilliant audiences ever gathered at a Nov: York playhouse. The tLeatre was packed, the boxes and stalls being filled with representatives of wealth and fashion. The seats commanded a premium, and hundreds were turned away. Mine. Bernhardt, as the , young Duke of Reiehstadt, repeated the triumph which she achieved in "Paris, while M. Coquelin made a tremendous hit- as Flambeau, the old' Grenadier. Both were repeatedly called before the curtain and wildly applauded. The newspapers express an unbounded admiration for M. Bernhardt’s superb acting and her inimitable portrayal of Napoleon’s unhappy son. The “Herald” says: ‘•'Nothing more finely conceived or more admirably represented has been seen on the modern stage.”- The receipts for mst night’s performance are said to have been over £I,BOO, and Mine; Bernhardt s share of the profits are reported to be fully £4OO. " , J ** * * *

“Patience,” at the Savoy, is a huge success, the management turning hundreds away nightly. The house was closed on Tuesday, when a great- demonstration of the lights of the musical profession took plaSe at Sir Arthur Sullivan’s funeral. - * * * * *

Mrs Brown-Potter will commence an engagement at the Palace Theatre on Christmas Eve, when she will recite poems, suitable for the season, surrounded by a winter scene, including; a gigantic Christmas tree. On the occasion of the matinees every child will, be invited to participate in a draw from a lucky bag, and the number drawn will denote the present to be received from the tree.

Though there were heavy press and free lists at the St. James's Theatre on the first night .of ‘'‘The Wisdom of the Wise, 1 ” Mr Alexander says they took £l9B’ in cash from the public. If this be so, the sound hissing which Mrs Graigie’s stupid play received canno t have come from an organised clique. As a matter of fact, the play is deadly dull, and simply met with a deserved fate. You will never see it in Australia.

The hero of a story I once re;ad was, says “Oarados,” of the “Referee,” ail exceedingly cultured young man, with aspirations to the higher life, and a firm belief in the mission .of the; drama to educate the public. "When he had done writing superior criticism, he set to work and wrote a superior play. As no manager would look at it, he —when a relative died and left him a hundred pounds—formed a company and brought it out at a provincial theatre. On the first night of production half the audience left before the performance was nearly completed; the other half remained, hoping for a chance to fling gingerbeer bottles at the,head of the author. And yet it was aesthetic, and full of art, with a big A. The piece drew £lO in six nights, and then moved on to another town, without improving its fortunes. ‘ Book ’ere, guv’nor ” said the .stage manager. “You’ll go. on like this, till you’ve dropped all your ‘oof,’ and then we shall be stuck somewhere, and have to foot it back to town. That would! be a silly thing to do. Just let me havg a go at _ the piece. I’ll slice the dialogue, chuck in some situations, jerk in a few wheezes, and buy four revolvers and a hundred cartridges.” It was all dead against the! author-mana-ger’s principles, but he gave consent. The new version was brought out on the following Monday. It was called “Murder Most Foul, or the Feast of Blood!” It contained three attempted murders., and two accomplished, four dagger fights, one suicide, one drugging of virtue by Villainy, thirty-seven pistol shots, and a. fine supply of “startling situations;” And soon afterwards that author manager was seen riding in his own carriage, wearing a diamond pin and a fur-lined coat, and when spoke to him .of Art, he was heard to say: “- — Art! It is the curse of the drama.” That, or something very like that, was what Mr Cecil Raleigh said on Sunday evening in the course of his lecture on “The Commercial Drama,” delivered at the Criterion Restaurant to a large gathering of the representatives of the newly-formed and already flourishing “0.P.” Club. Very frequently I have contended that the first duty of the drama is to amuse. That was looking at it from the. public point of view. Raleigh, regarding it from the managerial and authorial position, de- . dared that its first duty was to pay: that is, to- u ake money for it producers. There is very little difference between the two opinions, for the piece that does not interest or amuse the playgoers is not likely to prove remunerative or to satisfy anybody outside—as Raleigh put it—Colney Hatch or the Independent Theatre. But while agreeing with Raleigh that the man of limited. means who professes to run a theatre for the sake of art alone is either a fool or a humbug, I am not disposed to back' up his seeming belief that the dramatic rubbish that results in a big fortune is to be preferred to the more artistic work which provides for its producers only a respectable living. Further, it would be possible tothat drama of a high class can be made to pay just as well as drama of a low

class, and that Raleigh bad no justification for his triumphant tone when be asked what Shakespearian play could boast a run such as had been commanded by “The Grip of Iren.” HE LIKED THE SHOW. * The leading man of the Wide Awake Theatrical Company happens to be an acquaintance of mine, and he was. in town the other day. Said that he had just finished his season in Dudley. The company had been spending a week in the small towns. “Funniest thing on the whole trip was this,” said the leading man. “I’ve been saving it up to tell you. The hall was so small in one place that, we had to unpack on the stage. Had no dressing rooms. We were busy about seven o’clock in the evening, when all at once there was a banging on the outside door. The manager went to see what it meant. A man was there pounding with both fists. “ Let me in, let me in,’ shouted he. “‘Whoever heard of you?’ asked the manager. ‘What do you want?’ “ ‘l’ve just come from the country, and I want to see this show. I’m simply longing to see a. show. I want to come in.’

“ ‘Well,, you can’t come in now,’ said the manager, ‘the show hasn’t begun.’ “But the man still pounded. ‘Open the door!’ he yelled. “ ‘Well, come in/ said the manager, and he took the mail’s money and gave him a seat close to the stage, and after he had got his seat he was quiet as a kitten.

“ ‘You needn’t be afraid of me, boys/ said he; ‘I won’t ’sturb yer show,, not for no money. I wouldn’t have made as much noise at t’ door, but, you see, I didn’t wanter miss this show.’

“In a, minute we had forgotten all about the man. We went on unpacking and whistling and singing. W e we refeeling pretty gay and had been having a good! business, and so we joked with one another and skylarked round more or less..

“At quarter to eight o’clock the manager said': . “Well, hoys, drop the curtain and make less noise. I’m going to open the doors.’

“When the curtain had been dropped our friend in front struggled up, and after a. great e/ffort got one arm into his overcoat. Then he waved his ether 1 arm impressively and said, with the overcoat flopping a® he made his gestures: “Gen’lemen, this he a good show —it’s as good a show’s ever I’ve seed. It’s orl right, and it’s a great shame there bain’t a bigger audience —but this alius wais a pore show town. Good-night.’ ”