MR LEITCH’S BENEFIT.

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 7488, 28 May 1885, Page 2

MR LEITCH’S BENEFIT.

' To-night will witness the last appearance at the.Theatre Royal, this season.of Mr .George Leitch and .the able company who have held the boards of the Theatre daring :the-past four weeks. ' Mr Leitch will receive a farewell benefit, and there is sure to be a crowded bouse. An attractive programme has been prepared. In addition to the piece de resist* anee, will be performed the third act of “The Librarian,” introducing Mr Loitch’a song 4 ‘ The Good Voting Man who Died.*' The performance will commence. with the original drama in three acts, 44 The Madman,* 1 ' The following ia a brief outline of the plot “Three <years before the action commences there was no happier fellow in the world than Walter' Chisholm ; he was thtn 22 years of age, the pride of his widowed mother, and the soon to be happy husband of a charming lady. A bank failure in the north plunged his mother and himself. into diffinolties, He' accepted an appointment in Madrid. Failing to receive any communication from his fiances, Walter-Chisholm made a hasty journey homeward. Meantime, another and wealthy suitor had presented himself—one Captain Maraden. The young lady’s father waa in difficulties, and intercepted all the letters of the lovers. Maraden, who had never seen Walter Chisholm, is determined to supplant him at any cost, A paragraph in a paper announcing Waltor ' Chisholm's . marriage in Madrid to a wealthy Spanish lady is shown, and a letter ia . produced, as from a friend there, describing the wedding- The young lady takes refuge in her pride and the Captain is accepted. Walter Chisholm arrives home on the wedding day. Stunned by what be bears, be drives to the church in time to see the bridegroom raise the bridal veil—the husband kias the wife. The bursting of a blood-ves-sel produces'aii insensibility, wbUh ends ina dangerous illness. A moath afterwards the poor girl is in her grave and Walter Chisholm a raving maniac. By and by tbere ia a startling report in the papers. Walter Chisholm has 'strangled bis keeper, and is at large, no one knows where, pursued by bis devoted mother and friends. The play opens at: Mr, Medlock’a, at Brighton. Captain Marsden Is pajing his addresses to Medlock’s ward, a, wealthy heiress, who knows nothing of the Captain’s antecedents. Mr Medlockexpects a visit from the son of ' an old friend, Richard Curtis, whom he has never seen. Walter Chisholm having by accident made the acquaintance of Richard Curtis, and heard nbere be was going and whom he would meet, has, with a madman’s carmine, deprived him of his papers and luggage, and smuggled him Into an asylum. Chisholm visits Medlock.ln place of Curtis, primes the Captain with wine, induces him in a boasting spirit to tell the story of his villainy, and then the torrent of n madman’s wrath bursts forth.” J '