Plays & Players

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7967, 25 November 1911, Page 18

Plays & Players

OPERA HOUSE. | December 2-16.—Rickards' Vaudeville Co. I December 21 —January 16. —New Comic I Opera Co., 'Tho Balkan Princess/' 1 January 25-Fobrnary 14. —11. B. Irvine? Co. February l>22.—“The Speckled Band” Co. 3tarch 19-26.—Allan Hamilton Dramatic Co. April 4-20.—" The Chocolate Soldier" Co. April 27-Ma-y 13.—. Marlow Dramatic Co. i iliiv 25-23.—“Kverywoman" Co. i July 17-33.—.7. C. Williamson, Ltd., Panto- ; mimo Co. August 14-27.—" The Blue Bird" Co. October 19-November 2.—Oscar Aache-Lily Drayton Co. Noyembcr s.—" Ben Hur’’ Co. THEATRE ROYAL. Fullers’ Vaudeville (permanent). HIS MAJESTY'S. lV:“isrs* Pictures (permanent). THE NEW THEATRE. _ I Macmabon and Donnelly, Continuous Pic- ; lures (permanent). Mr Charles Hawtrcy has taken the Savoy -Theatre from Christmas onwards where ho will produce a children’s fairy play called “Where* the Rainbow Ends,'' by Clifford Mills and John Ramsey. Do not suppose," lie said, laughing oyer his venture, "that I am ‘out’ for children s plays, or the authors of rhes? pieces wiU bo raining them on me for future production. No, T read this one and was ■ so delighted with the-notion of it that : I decided to produce it. It is in four acts, and thev are all laid in ‘Dragon s Land.’ Why ‘Dragon’s Land? Well, you s;-o it is in Dragon’s Land that St. (Large kills the monster of the _ fable. ; Jt is thoroughly patriotic, and if you want a quotation to go with it, you might use a phrase with which we are all familiar, ’Wake up, England! Hut ‘do not sun nose that it is a piece for children exclusively. Thero will be plenty of interest for tho grown-ups, and remember, as Barrie put it, 'Behind every grev beard is the face of a child/ We are all children in the theatre. The piece, then, is» allegorical; it is full of fight and adventure. I have secured some of tho most promising young talent in London or oat of it, and there will bo plenty of children in my piece. Moreover, there will be some good scenic effects, Maskelyne illusions, and all the wonders of the land 'where the rainbow ends/ Mr Quilter has composed the music, and that is a feautro of the production." "Ton are great theatregoers here/’ remarked Mr H. B. Irving to an Adelaide interviewer. "It is more a part of your lives than.is, the case in England, We have been turning the people away from 'Hamlet/ Judging by the attentive and enthusiastic audiences the people come more as students, to learn, than, for entertainment." '‘Don’t you think there has been a tendency of late years for entertainment to rise superior to the drama in public taste?"—"True tber© l has been a great growth of entertainment of tho light kind. That has token place in the last twenty or thirty years. In my father’s time there were no music halls, no picture shows, and opera was always a failure. So you see the theatre has to face much more severe competition than it did in those days. Still, there it is, and tho theatre is Tory successful. I need only mention that 'Henry VIII/ ran for 200 nights in London. I think there are too many the* atres. and the effect of reducing them, would be to keep the really successful ones going. Nowadays, with theatrical' | enterprises it is a question of either hit or miss. In tho old days there could bo a run of a moderate success. That 1 ie not possible now. The expenses will not allow it. Rents have increased enormously since the days of my father and. the Bancrofts, and so have the salaries of actors. It is no use complaining about those things. , They have to be faced and fought/’

Tho preparations for the production in Australia of Maeterlinck’s beautiful play, "The Blue Bird," are so far complete that it has been announced that, the Australian tour, under the J. C. Williamson management, will begin after the London revival, which - was fixed to begin on October 23rd (says a Sydney contemporary). The piece is to be seen first at the Kennington Theatre, and at Christraastid© transferred to the West End, probably to its old homo, the Haymarket. Accordingly,; at the termination of' this run it will take wings for its flight across the ocean to this part of the world—the first time it will bo produced by an English company in any country outside Europe and America. 'The Blue Bird" ha© lately had a most prosperous tour in the English provinces. AVhen the piece was first produced at the Haymarket not a few' people thought the management was attempting a somewhat hazardous experiment. AVould the Belgian poet’s symbolism be understood by the average playgoer? it was asked. To-day there is, an uneouivocal answer to the question.. "Tho Blue Bird" has been understood and appreciated, not only by the average playgoer, but by the "galleryites and pittites" of provincial theatres.'. Mr. Frederick Harrison, who - ha© just reentered into the management of_ the Haymarket, recently told a "Daily News" representative that he is replacing the new scene introduced by the author last vear by the "Forest Scene’’ in tho thirdact. This is good news, as the beautiful episode which Maeterlinck wrote originally will doubtless be. thus retained in the Australian production also. The members of 'The Swiss Express", company now appearing at Melbourne Princes©’©, who have travelled with that remarkable pantomime comedy abroad, can tell of many interesting experiences in foreign countries, where this piece came as a revelation to unsophisticated' playgoers. "The Swiss Express," which 1 has been running for over thirty years, was sent to China. In Canton the theatre was crowded with Chines© on the opening night, and-when the acrobatic and trick features of the play cam© on th© audience was appalled. When tho omnibus made it© appearance, and collapsed entirely, with th© passengers on. too, who rolled on to the stage into their proper positions, while the’ horse disappeared simultaneously, nearly the whole of the audience fled precipitately, to burn prayer papers, apparently, to drive the evil one away, thinking that there was the supernatural in the play.

•‘The Swiss Express" went.on to Siam, where a command performance was given before the King and his Court, and so pleased was th© monarch with th© entertainment that he had it repeated tho following evening, each member of the company being presented after the performance with a costly jewel. Connie Emerald, who plays Virginia, the bride, in "The Swiss Express," is a dainty little artist who ought to become a great favourite with Australian playgoers. It is rather interesting that prior to her departure for Australia Miss Emerald took tho title role in "Th© King’s Bride" at the Kennington Theatre, London, a part presenting many similar features to that she is at present enacting in "Tho Swiss Express." The solo dancer in "The Swiss Express" is Mollie Geary, who did the solo dances in "Our Mis© Gibbs" and "Tho Girls of Gottenberg" in London. . .

Mr Thomas Quinlan, evidently* intends to do things in stylo in connection with has fortJicomink; provincial tour, and later tour, with the same grand opera company, of Australia. This enterprising manager believes in realism, but in realism, that has got far beyond tho '"real pump and two 'washlng-tubs” stage. Even the forest trees, we learn, in the last act of ‘"The Girl of tho Golden West,*' ar© to be, as near as possible, the “real thing/' “The nature of these gigantic and peculiar trees has

| been studied—from the texture of tho j bark to tho colour cf the dark foliage/’ Furthermore, "the mountains in the background of tho picture are the Rockies, and not the Alps, or Himalayas, or any kind of mountain you please/' But it i© far from being Mr Quinlan’s intention to glorify one opera at the expense of another. Thus, when the curtain rises on "Aida," the audience, wo are assured, will "need no programme to inform them ihat this is a Temple of Thebes—they can see it.” (We confess, ©ays tho London "Daily Mail," to some slight doubt whether every member of (he audience will recognise it at once; still, this does not detract from the producer’s enterprise and artistic spirit.) AVitli reference to A T enU'© Egyptian opera, it is stated further that "the usual representation of Amonasro as a kind of Zulu chief has been discarded.' Instead, he appears in the costume of a noble Ethiopian warrior, steel and. scarlet in colour, and wearing proudly his regal lion skin." GOSSIP.; Commenting upon Miss Tittell Bruno's anpearance as Claire Foster in “The Woman in the Case’’ at tho Coronet Theatre, London, the “Standard” remarks; "Miss Tittell Bruno, who sustained this part for some time during the West End run of the play, reaped a great personal success. Most people will remember that the crucial moment of the piny is reached in the third act when Claire, plied with drink, confesses to the murder round -which tho play revolves. This scene, which may be said to bo one of the' most powerful and dramatic in any modern play, showed Misfi Tittell Bruno's powers to their very best advantage. Her impersonation was excellent.” Mr Dudley Caustou, manager for Mr Mark Hambourg, the well-known pianist, was shot at Rimonsti (Quebec) during a political demonstration, Mr Caustou, who .was merely an onlooker, was hit by a chance revolver bullet, aVol it is feared that the wound will prove fatal. The well-known actress and authoress, Helene von Donnigos, who was closely associated with the life and tragic death of Ferdinand Lassalle, committed suicide at Munich by taking chloral hydrate a few days after the death of her third husband, the Russian litterateur, Baron Schewitsch. It was on her account that Lassalle fought tho duel with the Wallachian boyar Janko von Rakowitz, in which he fell. Fraulein von Donnigos afterwards married von Rakowitz. The story of the love, affair of Lassalle and von Donnigos and of the duel forms tho theme of -Meredith’s 'novel, “Tho Tragic Comedians.” The lady published two , volumes of memoirs, lone’ of them, which Was widely read, being entitled "My Relations with Ferdinand Lassalle.'’ She was sixty-five years of ago. Grief at tho death of her husband and straitened means are supposed, to have been tho motives for the act. "I am dying of desire to go up in an ;aeroplane,” said Sarah Bernhardt to a Paris interviewer, “but I have never been able to get anybody to take me. T have often arranged it, or thought it had been arranged, but at the last moment the aviator or somebody else has always excused himself. Nobody seems willing to take the responsibility. When I was at San Francisco they told me time after time, just to pacify me, I suppose, that I should be taken up tomorrow, bnt to-morrow never came. I have never been up, and do not suppose now that I over shall leave the earth in an aeroplane. Franco has done splendidly, and the army and tho nation have reason to be prond of the progress i they have made. But sometimes one ■feels almost sorry that it has come. One reads of these gallant officers and ,pilots w'ho are killed, and it seems a heavy price to pay. The new order of' ’ things brings many tears in the wake of success and enthusiasm.” , The theatrical profession of Sydney is to tender Mr George S. Titheradge a tribute, to take the form of a matinee, ,at Her Majesty’s Theatre. Th© veteran .actor, has been thirty-two. years on the, stage, the major period of which experience was before Australian audiences., Mr Titheradge is now living at Van--cluse, spending hia days in tho enjoyment of his hobby, horticulture, Messrs Wirth Bros, intend to visit New Zealand with their, circus and 'menagerie early next year. Mr George Wirth .has just returned to Australia from a world’s tour with a number of sensations and attractions. From the Hippodrome, New York, he engaged th© seven Flying Jordans, a double company of aoriallsts, and the Adelia Sisters and George, ’ wire-dancing marvels; from. Etoile Palace, Paris, Alf. Tack, the up-side-down phenomenon, jumping -up-and-down. stairs, skipping, etc., on his head, , without the aid of hands; from Cirque Madrono, Paris, the eleven Bastions, said to be th© world’s only equestacro-) bats; from Madison Square Gardens, New York, Kitchen and Foy and ■ the' Doban Artois aerial novelty gymnasts; and from Barnum and Bailey’s Circus, America, Harry Barge and Company of six comedians. From Hagenbeck’.s, Ham-i burg, Mr Wirth brought a group, of; i twelve full-grown pure white Polar bears (the largest group in existence). A fine pair of American bispns (an animal that , is fast becoming extinct), three grizzly bears,- and a pair of,-Russian wolves all . perform together in one large steel-caged arena.

“Alias Jimmy now being played in Sydney by the J. C. Williamson Company at the Theatre Royal, is ono of,, the few plays of English, or American origin that has achieved a ’success on the Continent. When the last mail left it was drawing big houses simultaneously in Vienna, Berlin, Brussels, and Paris. In the last named city it was being produced under the title of “Le Mysterieux Jimmy” at the' Theatre do la Renaissance.

Miss Margaret Anglin, whoso recent marriage does not involve her retirement from tho stage. Miss . Gertrude Elliott, and Mr Henry Kolker, are appearing in New York. Mr Kolker is 'playing the leading role in “The Great Name,” under the Henry W. .Savage management. Miss Anglin, whoso tour has been organised by Liebler and Co., began the New York season with A. W. E. Mason’s comedy, “Green Stockings.” At the conclusion of the run of this piece, Zangwill's “The Next Religion,” will be staged, and later a new play by Henry Arthur Jones. ' Miss Gertrude Elliott is appearing at the Maxine Elliott Theatre in a new piece entitled “The Rebellion." Th© part of Fairy Queen in th© Liverpool pantomime season this Christmas has been allotted to Miss Ivy Freshman (“Ivy Ray”), well known as a capable actress and singer in.the J. C. Williamson Company. As Miss Bay left Australia only about three months ago, her advance in. her profession has been rapid. Madame Carreno was in London last month as th© soloist, ' n Tsehalkowsky’s B flat minor concerto, at the Queen’s Hall Symphony Orchestra concerts. Mr Percy - Grainger is to appear at these concerts this month in Grieg’s only pianoforte concertoLEAVING HIM AT SEA

“Could you do something for a poor sailor?” asked the seedy-looking wanderer at th© gate.

“Poor sailor?” echoed the lady at work at the tub.

"Yes’m, I foUered the wotter for sixteen years.” “Well,” said the woman, after a critical look, “you certainly don’t look as if yon ever caught up with it." Then she resumed her labours.

"Hare you noticed, my friend, many fools there are ou earth?” " and there's always one more than think/*' how Yes; you