GRAND AND PLAZA THEATRES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18077, 27 October 1920, Page 6

GRAND AND PLAZA THEATRES

Generous catering for the popular taste has been characteristic of the management of the Grand and Plaza Theatres for some time past, and the new programme which was introduced for the first time at both houses • yesterday is no exception to this established custcsi. The two chief pictures of tho series both deal with powerful subjects, and are of absorbing interest from start to finish, and, in addition, there is a series of supports which is calculated to appeal to a very wide variety of tastes. " Shod With Fire" is the title of the first of these outstanding pictures, and it is a vigorous fresh-air story inspired by the " Bedouin's ixjve Song," and having a novel air of the primitive in several of its most emotional scenes. William Russell plays the leading role in this story, which, apart from its other merits, contains a powerful love interest that rivets the closest attention of the spectators. "Shod With Fire" is superbly mounted, its staging reaching the topmost pinnacle of realism. As its second string the programme contains a six-reel drama, entitled "Romance of the Underworld," a play which presents certain aspects of life in New York, and which features many scenes and events in that great city. It is a picture which cannot fail to produce a curious impression, and it certainly causes one to leave the theatre reuecting on the strange methods of life of maany of one's fellow-creatures. Catherine Calvert, and Eugene O'Brien portray the leading characters with striking effect, and the play as a whole is acted and staged on a very high level. These two nictures, with their supports, attracted very large attendances yesterday. They will be shown at both theatres again to-day.