OPERA HOUSE.

NZ Truth, Issue 97, 27 April 1907, Page 6

OPERA HOUSE.

"The Yellow Peril."

Macniahon's New Play.

Macmahons' new play, aptly called "The Yellow Peril," treats with a question which is of vital importance to Australasia, and indeed to the whole world. The menace of Asiatic development has come home (m recent years, and the attention of Legislatures m all parts of the Western. World has been more or less directed towards it. In the colonies and wherever the Union Jack waves there is a strong and healthy sentij merit against the influx of the Asiatic races, backed up by a deterjmination to maintain the purity ol j the white inhabitants from a racial strain. "The Yellow Peril" displays no dull hesitation m its hat,rec3o£ tha despised "Chow, and exposes the e Mils of the race convincingly m all its nakedness. ' An English girl is trapped or cajoled into a marriage with a Chinese potentate, who, by the way, sports the decoration of the Peacock's feather. Highly educated, m American colleges,, and \|?ell versed m Western manners, he is not an unattractive character, but subsequent events indicate that he has not lost his Oriental duplicity and cruelty. The girl, one? m Ms power, is made to feel all the horrors of her position, and is subjected to the grossest indignities, which arc popularly supposed to be the lot of a Chinese woman. Around this theme are woven the threads of incident and episode that make up the play of "The Yellow Peril," which will be presented for the first time on Monday, evening. Stage pictures, true to local color, have been prepared, which are minute m detail and adequately illustrate the manners andt, custo,ms of the cunning Celestial. The first act is located m England, m arose garden ; the second act takes place m the higher latitudes of the Ichang mountains, and here an "avalanche sensation" is worked ; the third act takes place m lower Chinese levels, and introduces many varied, exciting, and novel sensations. It is gratifying to see that the stage is talons up the cry against the menace of the Chinese to our nationhood, and Macmahons' play will take the Chinaman m all his' hideousness real to the public from behind the footlights.