AMUSEMENTS.

NZ Truth, Issue 98, 4 May 1907, Page 6

AMUSEMENTS.

OPERA HOUSE.

"The Yellow Peril."

The Press, the Pulpit, and the Stage have always been a power m directing public opinion. The Press appeals to all classes, the pulpit to the religious class, and the stage to all classes but the Wesley an and other fancy religious wowser classes. Possibly the stage reflects public opinicn more than, it directs it. The play-\v right strikes upon some question of sentiment of the hour, _ and if he strikes the right cord his'play is a success, if he does not it is a failure, and according, to the picture he has painted and the reception the public y give it do we ''know which way public sentiment lays. For months past ''Truth" has been fighting a lone hand, so far as the New Zealand Press is concerned, against- the Yellow Peril. The evils of the Chow have been exposed, his filthy dens shown up m all their hideousness, and a lurid light let on many vices and horrid practices. The , daily Press for the greater part kept silent, and m some cases even up-, held the Chinaman, and extolled his i virtues ; but that the attitude ' "Truth" took up is m accordance, with the bulk of the. people's feeling, has been demonstrated m many ways— numerous letters of congratulation from numerous members of all classes of the community, and hundreds of offers of assistance m exposing fresh cases of Mongol hkhis'tlrosities. But m no way has there fceen greater evidence of the trend of public feeling than m its antagonism to the Asiatic menace than m the demonstration that was made m the Opera House last Monday night when the Messrs McMahon produced for the first time m this city their new play, "The Yellow Peril." The enthusiasm which which each scene was received was ample testi- I mony to the fact that the New Zealand public has no 'time for the Chinaman..- It is a play that places before the public a picture of Chinese ■ life m high places that no 'pen could portray.;. >Itis a series of scenes and episodes that brinej vividly before the audience m perfect continuity first the fascination for tflie Orient for the üßthwikvn'g Western mind, second the < awakening, to what Oriental despotism means, and third the terrible realisation of 'helpless and homeless slavery m a barbarous laaid. The story, as has already been told m a preliminary announcement m "Truth," is of the mistaken love of a young English girl for a Chinese potentate— a man well versed m Western ways and educated im Western schools.' The awakening comes when the pair get to Ghana, where "the wife socn finds that a wife m England is a very , different being to a wife m China. She finds herself a slave— the moment her husband tires of her she is handed over to the keepers of the household, and starved, beaten and tortured- Of course she is finally rescued, and taken hack to England to join her true lover, and escape from the toils that had been, drawn. around her. The whole, plot is admirably weeked out, every scene containing some stirring situation. The great success of the play ; is undoubtedly due >to the- magnificent setting and dressing. No end ,of trouble has been taken jto make every detail perfect. The .grandeur of the Orient has been fa-it hfully copied m all the scenes m ; China; and the English scene is a pjicture oi an old-fashioned rose garden,. The dresses have all been made a faithful copy of the real Oriental 'garb, even to the peacock feather s\ported -by two mandarins, who giv;e such a fine exhibition of what refined "villainy; .the Chinese official is capable, of. The cast is well placed, every member of the company filling a suitable role. Miss May Granville, as the American heroine, Mi tan-da Rudd, stands^ out through her fine interpretation of '.the part.. She plays the American woman— resourceful and self-assertive— to perfection, maintaining the twang throughout, a tiring and difficult performance. Miss May Renfao takes the parsb of the English girl who m-a^ries the,, oioble Chow, and makes the moist- of her" opportunities, without ovse/rdoing ,;the part. Miss Helen Fergus, as the accomplice of the villain, has a dUfflcult role to fill, and deserves great credit for the spirit she puts into her- acting. Mrs. Barry Lane makes ,an excellent mother-in-lasw, : and little. Lena Sinclair wins all heatrts by her acting of the little Chow half-caste. "Truth" has never heard a Chow potentate imdulpin'R m drawiag-room conversation, but Mr. Alf Boothniian's interpretation of the paa:t of Lo Fene- Tsao was ius* about as near the right tiring as we can imagine. Charlie Blake, for a change, toqk the responssMlfties • of the villain, and he looked the part. Mr. Ed. Nable stood to tb.e coirnedy business, and kept his end up well. All the minor parts were jajell filled, i