IRVING’S IMPERIAL MIDGETS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19980, 23 December 1926, Page 2

IRVING’S IMPERIAL MIDGETS.

“The drollest of entertainment is presented by the little band of midgets now appearing at the Opera House (said the New Zealand Herald of October 26). They provide not merely a freakish spectacle—after all, they are only 2ft to Bft in height—but they offer a complete revue pi-ogramrae of songs, dances, and novelty items, presented with a professional flair that stamps every member of the company an artist. So fascinating was their work to their first New Zealand audiences yesterday that not an eye wandered from the stage while they held the boards and each tiny performer earned his failmeasure of applause. The dressing and costuming of the act was noteworthy. . The final impression was one of a row of dwarf figures in the limelight, smiling and blinking good-naturedly before an impressive drop-curtain depicting giant knights in armour halting their gaily-caparisoned chargers at the drawbridge to a mediaeval castle. The midgets, however, rc not the whole show, or even half of it. The first and third parts of the programme are occupied by the Chcfalo-Palermo company of magicians, who provide what Aucklanders have not seen for some considerable time—a complete show of magic and illusion, ranging fi-om sleight of hand to big effects requiring literally tons of baggage. Theirs is an act that gets right away from the customary appurtenances of the vaudeville stage, and invites the audience to -be amused by being mysuKed. Chcfalo doe' everything impressively. He is a clever performer, and what is even more, a tried showman, and is aided in his performance by a number of assistants and some gorgeous stage settings of the Oriental order. The combined entertainment of magicians and midgets wi’l be welcomed by local patrons of the theatre, not only because they present a fine entertainment, bnt for the brief change it affords from the vaudeville and revue offerings of the past.” The combination of “midgets and magic” will commence a Dunedin season with a matinee at His Majesty’s Theatre on Monday next (Boxing Day). Reservations may be made at the Bristol until Friday night and on Monday at the Geyser Soda Fountain.