ENTERTAINMENTS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9632, 12 April 1917, Page 8

ENTERTAINMENTS

OPERA HOUSE. Another largo audience at the Grand Opera House last evening gave evidence of abundant ■appreciation of the delightlull comedy ‘'Seven Keys to Baidpate. The humorous developments at Baidpate Inn are brimful of surprise. The play wail be presented lor two more nights. On Saturday evening there will be introduced “A Pair of Sixes/' a production teeming with irrsistible farcical comedy.. Somewhat reminiscent of'‘Potash and Perim utter/' yet the new play does net involve the "Yiddish" element. The first act is described as a continuous laugh studded as it is with subtle wit and crisp dialogue. Mr Robert Greig and hi« colleagues have already achieved much popularity with local playgoers and their appearance in their second production should attract considerable interest. “A Pair of Sixes" will be staged for four nights, and the season will conclude with three performances of “The Travelling Salesman/' "A PAIR OF SIXES/'

The new farcical comedy, “A Pair of Sixes," to b© staged by Mr Robert Greig, Miss Beatrice Holloway, and. J. C. svilliamson's brilliant supporting company at the Opera House on Saturday night next, ranks with the very best American plays staged in recent years. The Australasian rights of "A Pair of Sixes" were purchased by Mr Hugh J. Ward at a very high figure, it being at the time the reigning attraction in New York, That Mr Ward's judgment was correct in regard to the new piece was proved by the enormous success it achieved in Australia- "A £air of Sixes/' said a critic recently, “is a comedy running over with wit and humour of tfi© driest and unexpected, kind. It kept the audience in such continuous laughter that some of the gems of humour wore lost amid the roar. It is a delightfully fresh and breezy play, with no single dull moment, and although a farcical comedy of the most hilarious order it is never broad/' Of course, Mr Robert Groig and Miss Beatrice Holloway are the central figures in the play, in which they both receive greater opportunities than they had in "Seven Keys to Baidpate," but Mr Kenneth Brampton, who will be remembered, here chiefly because of his flue portrayals of important characters with the Hugh Buclder comedy company, has also a very strenuous role to enact.

HIS MAJESTY’S. Fullers’ Vaudeville Company appeared before another thronged assemblage His Majesty’s Theatre last evening. Foremost on the bill is the act provided by Zakaree .Ermakov, a former Russian Secret Service agent, who juggles skilfully with swords, axes, bayonets, shoots with unerring precision and discourses entertainingly on German militarism aided by interesting lantern slides. Other contributors include Huntley Spencer (coloured tenor), Maud Fanning and Elliott Sisters, Lily Vockler, Thompson and Montez. The programme will be repeated this evening. croiviTtheatre. There is a pleasing spice of variety about the new programme shown for the first time at the Crown Theatre, Thorndon, last night. First and foremost was a great World Film sensation,, “Broken Chains,’’ which features Miss Ethel Clayton and Mr Carlylo Blackwell. Wrongful imprisonment is the time-worn basis of the plot, but it is handled in such a way and involves such striking situations that the picture is quite novel. A young captain is 'sent to prison for life on a charge of killing another man—a crime of which he is innocent. The plot which leads to his incarceration is a political one, but the intriguers fail to reckon with a certain Georgia Gwynne. who is passionately attached to the young captain. As usual, love laughs at locks and bars; the prison chains are temporarily broken by the heroine making use of the convict leasing system to be again with her lover. Love completely triumphs in the end. The picture is full of limbling incidents. The other films on the programme include excellent views of the Wnimangu eruption, a splendid Vitagraph comedy "Busting in and Out of Society,” pictures of the bombardment of Newport, and the latest “Gaumont Graphic.” There is an appropriate selection of incidental music ranging. from grand opera to modern comic opera numbers. THE~KIN G’fb • The conflict between negroes and whites takes its place in the formation of the plot of “Broken Chains.’’ The hero, lighting upon a district where feeling runs high, is soon accused of wishing to stir up the black element, and from that accusation springs bitter trouble. The picture shows the popular Ethel Clayton in a most powerful dramatic role. There are splendid supporting pictures, including tho eruption at Waimangu. Lilian Walker will be screened on Saturday in a fins picture called "Indiscretion.” THE EMPRESS. A second marriage has been said to be the triumph of hope over experience, but this witty trifle hardly applies to the tragedy of the second wedding of Gail Kane in “The Men She Married.” a World picture play, which is keeping up the standard of high attendances at this house. The story describes a woman’s unfortunate marriage with a crook who already has a wife. The picture is full of unexpect, edness, and is well done. Supports. include the Waimangu Eruption. Next Saturday Ethel Clayton will be screened in ’’The Bondage of Fear.”

EVERYBODY’S. "No woman yields to a man willingly—it is only when his interest begins to wane that she begins to resent." This is the biting remark made by Frank Keenan as the hero of “The Sin Ye Do,” in attacking the theory of “The Unwritten Law.” The heroine of this splendid Triangle play, as portrayed by brown-eyed Margery Wilson, is second only to the wonderful characterisation given by Keenan himself. The “Sin Ye Do” must be regarded as Triangle’s greatest triumph. Billie Burke in “The Harvest of Sin,” and interesting films of the Waimangu Eruption make up the best picture menu in town. Mae Marsh stars in “The Wharf Rat” on Saturday.