OSCAR ASCHE SEASON.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18952, 28 August 1923, Page 9

OSCAR ASCHE SEASON.

“CAIRO.” Tiie box plana for tho six nights and onfl matinee season of the important J. C. Williamson Oscar Asche season of “Cairo” will be opened at the Bristol Piano Company on Friday next. Writing of “Cairo,” which is to be staged here by the brilliantactor and producer, Oscar Asche, under the management of J. 0. Williamson (Ltd.), at His Majesty’s Theatre, commencing Monday next, at 8 o’clock, a prominent Melbourne critio writes: “Oscar Asche is a great producer. and ‘Cairo’ is great in production. For his purpose Oscar Asche has put together a neat framework of drama,.,and comedy with immediate popular appeal. Applying to this framework the arts pi. the producer, he has provided an entertainment of exceptional magnificence. ‘Cairo’ is described ag a ‘mosaic in music and mime.’ Mr Oscar Asche has obtained results of .remarkable splendour in the combination of scenery, costumes, lighting, movement, and repose. There is rare beauty in scene after scene, and the beauty is so varied that there can be no feeling of inptiotony. Always ‘Cairo’ .is a delight to the eye, and the music, the drama, and the comedy fit well into their places on the brilliant mosaic. In ‘Cairo’ Oscar Asche has opened the great green gates of romance and antiquity and shows the throngs of pioturfesgue men and animals at the. gates of Cairo, the glorious gardens of the palace, the evening beauty of tho encampment by the Nile, the luxuriousness of the harem, the glories of an old palace of Egypt, the barbarism of the slave market, the delicate lacquered beauty of a Chinese houte, end tho reincarnation of the ruined temple, of Cleopatra. All these glimpses of magnificence, Oriental and ancient; all these rich colour harmonies and piling of tone upon tone, the succession of costumes, gorgeous and seductive, all these exquisite arrangements of light and shade have been, conjured up by Oscar Asch, whose realistic characterisation of Ali Shar, ■ a picturesque, dominating figure, a Rahelasian wrestler and rascal, ready to break a Sultan’s neck or wheedle wealth from the pilgrims to Mecca, is one of the features of the production.” There are three brilliant acts and 14 wonderful scenes, the play necessitating the' 1 employment of over 200 people.