APPEARANCE OF MARIE BURKE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19505, 13 June 1925, Page 12

APPEARANCE OF MARIE BURKE.

“WILDFLOWER”—TONIGHT. To-night, at Ilia Majesty’s Theatre, com. moncing at 8 o’clock, tho J. C. Williamson Now Musical Comedy Company will appear in “Wildflower,” with Miss Mario Burke in the role of “Nina.” On Monday and Tuesday next the company will play Invercargill, owing to tho theatre being otherwise engaged. They return to Dunedin on Wednesday and reopen in “Wildflower.” “Wildflower” is a musical comedy new hero, and one which comes with the highest credentials. Of “Wildflower,” tho critic of tho Wellington Evening Post writes:— “Wildflower,” produced for tho first time at the Grand Opera House last evening, is unlike many musical plays which are so in name and nothing more. It has a definite and distinctive plot, for one tiling, a story that grips the interest at the outset and holds it firmly to the end. There are great, opportunities- in “Wildflower” for actor, singer, dancer, costumier, scene painter, and conductor to display the best that is in them, and, above all, for the producer to adequately utilise ail those resources for the presentation of an artistic and popular, and, therefore, commercial success. All that the producer—in this in stance with obviously liberal pecuniary means at his disposal could do, ha s been done in “Wildflower.” It 13 a very fine production, a genuine success last evening. The scenery was fresh and well painted, and in tho first act excellently composed into a most attractive picture of Italian farm buildings with tree-studded slopes and a winding road in the middle distance, and towering Alpine peaks, snow-capped, dominating all, also a full-bearing apple tree in the centre of the stage. This tree had a definite part in the play. The second scene, a palatial interior, was equally well This wa 3 tho setting for the stage. Tho costumes were those worn by Italian peasants (in opera) on festive occasions, and these were contrasted with modern fashions by day and brilliant and daring toilettes by night, among which officers’ blue and grey uniforms, with scarlet facings were conspicuous. The chromatic effects of the intermingling of these peasant costumes with tho latest of fashions, and the soldiers’ uniforms already described, met with delighted acceptance on the part of tho house, and it said so by the strong emphasis it put upon its applause, which was vigorous and frequent/ “Marie Burke, who is a really great artist, was splendidly received, and scored a distinct triumph as “Nina.” The play was interpreted by a cast that loaves nothing to be desired.”