J. C. WILLIAMSON'S COMPANY.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1009, 10 March 1909, Page 4

J. C. WILLIAMSON'S COMPANY.

"THE BED MILL." We have of late not been treated to so much musical comedy as to have become hypercritical, but " The Red Hill" presented last night- by Mr J. C. Williamson's Company struck us as being particularly flimsily constructed, as is the tendency of present-day musical comedies. Fortunately the scene is interestingly laid, tor the quaint Butch village is a refreshing change from the Eastern atmosphere in ■which librettists have so keenly sought their inspirations. The dressing was particularly good, the color schemes being pleasing to the aesthetic taste, but there was little change in the environments, and the management was not called upon to make so great an effort as usual in providing mechanical effects. There is nothing especially clever in tho book, and the players, realising this fact, did not even extend themselves to make as much out of their words as might have been made. From the point of view of acting, Mr Charles Loder, as the keeper of the lied Mill Inn, stood out by himself. His was a very clever character sketch, and his dialect was wonderfully correct. The airs in the Red Mill have not a great, deal to recommend them, and they were sung quite its well as one would expect such music to be sung. The_ whole plot centred round the two Americans, whose parts were played by Messrs John Ford and Fred Leslie; in fact, it would appear that the rest of the opera had been written merely as a foil to these parts. Both Messrs Ford and Leslie are clever "knockabout" artists, the dancing of tile .former being most eccentric and wholly entertaining, in character quite different from that l-o° which we are accustomed. Miss Ivy Scott, as the daughter of the inn-keeper, co-operated with these two ill several good songs, and she showed a marked aptitude for accommodating- herself to the strange antics of her co-adjutors, for though she is not a dancer of parts she is full of life tempered by refinement. The management was good .and the orchestra much" above the average, though :>t. times the principals might* have been singing ouite clever or funny things, hut thev were not heard because the musicians in front willed it so.