PLAYS AND PLAYERS.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 3262, 20 October 1897, Page 1 (Supplement)

PLAYS AND PLAYERS.

BY “LORGNETTE/’ IN “N.Z. MAIL.” Tho production of Wilson Barrett’s | religious play, “ The Sign of the Cross," (in Adelaide, a city celebrated for the number and variety of its religious organisations, has caused some small sensation in the South Australian capital. One local minister advertised a sermon, “ The Sign of the Cross," or “ The Devil Dressed in White." An excellent advertisement for the show. The Firm sent, I hope, a good donation to the church.

The so-called “ Golden West" is not altogether the mummer’s paradise it has been painted. One well known variety Company performing in a leading mining city had a £5 house. Another had the gorgeous amount of twelve bob in tho house at ten minutes to eight. All is not gold that glitters.

My Christchurch correspondent writes as follows: —Christchurch is to be Well supplied with amusements during the carnival week (November). At the Theatre Boyal Bland Holt will produce several of his racing pieces. The Flying Jordans are to:occupy the ordinary circus site, where they intend erecting their large marquee, holding 2000 persons, and give their acrobatic and variety entertainments. The Christchurch Kinematographe Company have secured the Oddfellows’ Hall,'and intend to give a repetition of the Jubilee pictures. At the Tuapl S{re'et Hall there is to be band concerts. This list Will have, the addition of a merry-go-round; and d number of side"'shows will provide plenty of amdscmont forbothtown and country visitors.— Bland Holt, who has been doing good business in Dunedin, with “ A Derby Winner "and “For England," wilt open in Christchurclr on Saturday the 23rd inst, and play during the carnival week.— William Horace f Bent, the well-known negro comedian, was a passenger to Sydney by the Waikar’e. Horace had been in Dunedin for some time, and his passage was arranged by a number of his admirers. —The Inman Dramatic Company have secured the Theatre Boyal, Christchurch, for Christmas and New Year.—Mr Eaphael, who will be remembered as advertising agent with Bland Holt during his last tourj is again on the war-path, and is now in Christchurch getting up the programme and advertising act drops. Last season the pititeq howled loudly at the unsightly sheet, and one evening in the City of the Plains it came down and narrowly escaped killing the genial Bland.—The Pollards will in all probability come to New Zealand early in December, and play some of the small towns before opening in Wellington, where they are due on Boxing night with the Japanese pantomime of “ Djin Djin".— The Paulton-Stanley Comedy Company open at the Opera House, Auckland, on the 18th inst. The company comb to Now Zealand under the auspices of Messrs Williamson and Musgrove. Mr Joe St. Clair is tho.awui courier, —The Christchurch Kinematographe Syndicate have done remarkably well in all the towns of the North Island. The spec, has been a good one, and a handsome dividend will be the result. Mr B. A. Underwood, who is in advance, is the right man to run the" show.—Bristol's Horse Show is to play through Now Zealand again early next year.—-Mr J. E. Petherick, the well-known advance agent and manager, is resting in Christchurch. Jim is a good man, and always makes a show “ hum," whether ahead or with it as manager.—Miss Gwynne Herrick, wellknown in the theatrical profession, is now teaching skirt dancing to the rising juveniles of the City of the Plains.

Miss Emilie Wood tho Sydney pianist, round here with Madame Patey (?), went Home to perfect herself as a musician, but she has now entered upon a course of study in Paris as a singer. The number of Australian musicians and vocalists now studying in Paris, Leipslc and Milan must surely be legion. , ,

That funny little man, the Bev Saweis —Hawes," please— : who Was out here oh a lecturing tour some time back, spealis well, in his book of Australian reminiscences, of bis agent, the tall and fiercelymoustached Hugo Fischer: “A man of fine presence and great cultivation, whose kindness to me in my somewhat dilapidated condition I shall never forget."

Apropos to lecturers and their agents, I shall be curious to seo i what Mark Twain. will have to say i ii his bbok re that Napoleon of agents, the “ Much Travelled ” Smythe.

Is Kyrle Bellew the vain actor here alluded to (in Bulletin) ?—Actor’s vanity f A potentate who has become mildly famous through his legs and piebald drama curses the limelight-man oven more fervently than ever did Henrignold V. in his palmiest days. When he was in Sydney the red light used to turn blue when it reached the swear-laden atmosphere that surrounded him. He once said complacently to a chorus-girl who had beautiful hair, “ My legs and your hair are the admiration of the whole theatre."

New version of an old saying : “ It is a long worm that has no turning." From “ The French Maid" musical comedy now being played at Her Majesty’s, Sydney.

How is it that so many low comedians 1 —on the stage—are so fond of serious matters when off the hoards ? The particular weakness in the conversation of Harry Faulton the English comedian, now in Australia, and shortly to visit us, is to discuss political economy.

The sensation of Melbourne at the Princess is “ A Eoyal Divorce,” a fine Napoleonic play which was' a, great success in London, and of which The Firm with as much prescience as enterprise promptly snapped up the colonial rights. The chief characters will be talien by the principals in “ The Sign of the Cross," Julius Knight, who must be a very fine actor,if all wo hear'of him be true, playing Buonaparte. Miss Perris is the injured Josephine. I hope the firm will let New Zealanders see both this play and “The Prisoner of Zenda,'" as well as “ The Cross,"

George Rignold is back again in Sydney with that good old timer, “ In the Banks.' Popular prices are to be charged-which is not a very hopeful sign, for some how or other the theatre going . public always seem.to sheer off a cheap show.

At the Palace Theatre, Sydney (Tattersall Adams’ gorgeous place, now leased bye Biekards), a new start is being made, the variety business pure and simple having been discarded for a musical comedy, “ A Bunch of Keys.” The cast includes Lauri, Marietta Nash (Mrs L.), the plump and pleasing Addie Conyers and others. Mr and Mrs Lauri are said to have played in the piece for six months consecutively in the States. The play is by the author of A Trip to Chinatown.”

• George Buller, whose mirth-provoking bobby, O'Hara, when here with Dampier (“Bobbery Under Arms”) will be remembered by many ‘Wellington playgoers, has been interviewed by Sydney Referee. Buller says that when he was a youngster he was engaged by George Coppin to appear in a panto, at the Cremorne Gardens, Melbourne. He duly rehearsed with the other - youngsters, but on tbe day of the opening performance some other enterprising -youngster stole bis panos, and he was unable to appear. He was “ commercial master ” at the Melbourne Grammar School for eleven years, but temporarily lost his sight and had to retire. When he was all right again ho happened to go and see Maccabe, and soon after started off on his own as a. monologue entertainer. He ran Pain’s Fireworks for a time, managed a tour for Maccabe, made a lot of money, and then lost it in the boom, and finally joined Dampier some five years ago, and has been with him ever since.

A new actress has sprung up in Italy in the person of Yitaliani, none other than the cousin ef Eleanora Duse, the great tragedienne, one whose genius, it appears, has inspired Italians and' Spaniafds alike with such fervent admiration Jhat they are quite at a loss for words to express their, feelings. She has just returned from a tour in South America, which has been a triumphal progress from beginning to end. By a strange coincidence, too, tbe roles in which she most excels are those-in-which her cousin has been so successful—viz., “ La Dame aux Camelias," “ Fedora,” &c. ,

Miss'Maud J cities, who for some years has been “Wilson Barrett’s leading lady, will possibly accompany the author of “ The Sign of the Cross " in that capacity during his Australian tour at the commencement of next year.

Miss Grace “Warner, who visited Australia with her father, Mr Charles Warner, is said to have entered into a *f life-long engagement" with Mr Franklya McLeay,

! who played Nero iu “ The Sign of the ■ Cross ” in London. I “ Hinemoa," writing from Maoriland, j sends the following “ Groan ” to tho Puli letin :— A GROAN. My soul is surfeited with problem plays And art decadent. Oh, (r ve back again The simpler, saner lights of other days When heroines were never bad or plain.

Now Aubrey Beardsley’s nightmares ate the the rage, Marie Corelli’s gospel’s deemed sublime, Ebbsmiths and Hedda Gabblers hold the stage That Rosalinds and Juliets trod one time.

Would that all fudge of crack b-a ns emanate, Were to the lowest depths of oc an hurled, And Art on e more would try to imitate This sorry, sinful, sane and sunlit world.

Mr Bernard Shaw has gone to Scotland in order to produce his comedy “ Ci.ri dida." The piece may be described as u piece of mordant satire, quite as clever as “Arms and the Man.” Miss Janet Achurch seems to have made a deep impression As the heroine. Mr Courtenay Thorpe, Mr Oharrington, and Miss Edith Craig also won favour.

The following paragraph appears iu tho London JJaily Mail l —Fending arrangements for the production of “ The Land of the Moa ” and other dramas produced by him in-the colonies, Mr George Leiteb, a popular comedian in the Australian colonies, has accepted a provisional engagement to appear as Hilarius in “La Foupee ” at Brighton:

Charles Ryley 1 tfris hi his slst year when he died. This is hard to beliefs, but it is nevertheless a fact. , Copies of the burial service were presented to all the friends who attended his funeral, and on. these the date of his birth was given. He tyas born in 1847. When he was a member of Williamson and Musgrove’s Royal Comic Opera Company llyley looked a smart fellow of 30. When here with Edwardeg’ Gaiety Company a couple of years back he might easily have passed for 34, and even then, when little misses of 18 were raving about him, lie tfds getting on for 60. Most marvellous it is how theatrical people retain their youth. Look at Bellow, to all appearances a man of 34 or so, iu spite of his grey hair, and yet he, too, must be little short of 50. Think of Nellie Stewart in “Ma Mie Rosette," and try to behove she is 40. Kecall Mrs Rotter in “ The Ironmaster,” Of as Juliet, and wonder how a woman on the shady . side, of ,40 has been enabled to look 18 with ’the make-up She used.— Punch,

Madame Patti possessed an ardent admirer—an old blind woman who lived in the neighbourhood of Craig-y-nos, and whose chief interest in life was the gossip about the great singer’s daily doings, etc. TVo or three times had tho old lady heard the prima dprtria sing, and great had been the impression triads' upon her. . So much so, indeed, that whan she lay ill, she de* dared that nothing but a recurrence of that treat would make her get well again “ She’s that good, I believe she’d come here an’ sing to me if she know it would set me bn my feet again 1" was her declaration. Her friends, anxious to please her, persuaded al young girl from a distance, a sweet-voiced singet;,tcr Come over to the cottage and sing one song, arid led the blind woman to believe that Madame Patti had consented to grant her request. But tho first verse was enough.

“ No, no, it’s not herself," cried tho invalid. The deception had failed. “ But I’ll live now till I do hear her again," cried the angry old woman. I won’t bo done out of what I’d made up my mind to I" And she did live, until long after her wish had been gratified.

The writing of letters on the stage (says a writer.in a London paper) often causes much amusement to the audience by reason of the extraordinary system of shorthand which the actor or actress seems to use, and which enables him or her to write a long letter in the space of a few seconds. The reason for this haste, of course, is that any realism in the matter of slowness would tend to make

the piece drag; but whilst the majority of our Thespian friends adopt this rapid method, there are one or two who take their time, and, what is more, indite genuine epistles, though usually the matter of the letter is different from that sat down by the author. Madame Modjeska, for instance, used often to write most humorous messages to her brother actors and actresses when she was supposed to be tracing words of bitter anguish. One night in “La Dame aus Camelias," when she was writing the letter to Armand (her sweetheart) giving him up, and whilst tho whole house was hushed in sympathetic grief, she was in reality scrawling a message to the Armand' of the play begging him not to kiss her so roughly, as his moustache hurt her cheek. As may be imagined, the note caused the stage lover much amusement, and it is to be hoped that lie acted bn the suggestion. Another famous actress would write such messages as “ Have a jug of stout waiting for me when I come off," or “Ask tho leading man not to use that abominable hair oU when he does his next scene," and so oil. A young actor on taking up his position at tho wing one evening for his entry, had a summons handed him for a small amount which he owed. It so happened that ho had his cheque book on him, and in the very scene which he was about to enact he had to write a letter and a cheque. He at once wrote a letter to his importunate creditor and also a cheque for ths amount owing, inscribing on the envelope the proper , address. The note was handed to the stage footman, who gave it in turn to the man who had served the summons, and so the .£IOOO cheque which the actor was supposed in the piece to have given to his rival in a moment of noble self-abnegation was nothing more than a cheque for five pounds or so in settlement of a . tradesman’s bill. And the audience looked on and of course never suspected in the, least degree.