ENTERTAINMENTS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 6313, 13 September 1907, Page 6

ENTERTAINMENTS

OPERA HOUSE. "MR HOPKINSON." Despite execrable weather, the Opera House was well filled last night with an audience which revelled in “Air Hopkinson," a farcical comedy successfully produced by Messrs Willoughby and Ward's London Comedy Company. li. C. Carton has achieved in this comedy a distinct feat, for ho has dignified it with an excellent plot which detracts nothing from its unusual breeziness and humour. Shortly, the story deals with the very smartest set, the set whose supposed conduct may be clearly indicated from a small ‘piece of the dialogue in which a noble lady remarks to her lover, “When we are married i am going to try and make you forget that i am only your wife." Naturally tor the purposes of tho farce tho prevailing haute ton are in a perpetual state of devising ways and means for paying off mortgages and the upkeep of position. Enter therefore Mr Hopkinson, who from a lowly position “in the city" has become the possessor of forty thousand a year. Here are the usual means of restoring the fortunes of a ducal house. The duchess's favourite young man (who is permitted by his Grace) has cultivated the “bounder" as a payable proxaosition, and her Grace finesses a marriage with great deftness between the man who outrages all "smart" conventions, and a tender bud of nobility, who is fairly complaisant in the matter of “convenance." The whirl of comedy does not ccaso throughout four acts of rollicking drollery, in which the excellences of the dialogue are much more evenly distributed than is usual. There is in tho plot an inconvenient ladies' maid, who, before Mr Hopkinson's burst into society, has been his faithful fiancee, and her introduction as maid to Mr Hopkinson's future aristocratic wife makes a complication that gives the “bounder" his finest opportunity. Miss Grace Palotta, who is always refreshing both for her jJiquancy, her capabilities as an actress and her understand of fine comedy, is perhaps better suited as the . intriguing Duchess of Braceborough than in anything she has previously shown in Wellington. Miss Palotta is tho blase jiuchesg who gees her husband as a guest at somebody eise's house, and her own favourite much oftener at her own. As a tutor to the insufferable joerson whom she desires should be her niece's husband she plays up to the comedy part of Hopkinson with charming skill. Mr Hugh Ward quite excels himself as the "bounder" with a vulgar penchant for a bargain, a “Hupper Tooting" manner and an uncommon nervousness in the presence of blue blood. Mr Ward has studied his part so carefully that it scintillates. He does not relapse into English once, his grotesque manner is highly hilarious, and he was responsible for more healthy laughter than is usually heard in th© Opera House. As the Earl of Addleton, whose daughter is the lamb to be sacrificed on the alter of Hopkinson, Mr Geo. Willoughby is seen in a totally new role and on© that suits him quite as well as the more boisterous parts in which he is most often seen. His chronic state of indisposition is artistically done. Mr War b urton-Gamble, as the faithful friend of the duchess (Hon. Otto Dursingham), gives a nice sketch of an impecunious aristocrat to whom piebians are frequently indebted, in that he borrows money from them. Mies Olive Wilton, plays tho part of Lady Thyra, the aforesaid lamb, with great address, and her "love" scene, with th© intolerable "Hoppy" is one of, the best things in the farce. Mr Edward Bonfield as Lord Gawthorpe, the man who marries the lamb while the ducal family are getting Mr * Hopkinson to sign the marriage settlement, makes a breezy aristocrat of the less objectionable kind.’ Miss Gillian Scaife, the erstwhile fiancee of Mr Hopkinson, and who has succeeded in extorting from, the worried plebian and co. .£SOOO, is particularly well cast, and the fact that she at, last captures the prize gives a relish and finish to the farce that is quite delightful. The dressing of the piece is of much excellence, all the acts being staged charmingly. There will be a repetition of "Mr Hopkinson" to-night.

THEATRE ROYAL. Several members of the Fuller Vaudeville Company made their fareweH appearance at the Theatre Royal last evening. A number: of new artists will make their bow this evening, • including Salmon and Chester, dramatic sketch duo. Stewart, Sterling, and Dunbar, comedy trio, Bonita in an entirely, new act, Mexican Joe's Arizona troupe, and, J. AY. Kilner, buffo artist. Dr Bradshaw's final organ recital at the Town Hall this evening will no doubt attract a crowded audience. The piogrammo has been drawn up on popular lines, although gems from the classics have not been neglected. Miss Lynn Mills will be tendered a benefit concert by Wellington musicians at the Town Hall on Monday, September 23rd. Miss Mills met with an accident on January 2Cth, which fractured one of her legs in five places, and as a result has since been confined to the Now Plymouth Hospital, whore she remains now. The box plan opens at the Dresden rooms on Monday next.