New Zealand.

Otago Witness, Issue 1652, 21 July 1883, Page 23

New Zealand.

There have been far 'too many changes of i programme at the Princess Theatre during the | past. week to enable me to give' a detailed notice of the various performances. The season, however, is proving an instructive one,. lif only by the insight which it gives intd the real tastes of Dunedin playgoers. Judging by thVhbuseß of late, "Leah, the Forsaken," with a really intelligent impersonation of the title 'rdley is unspeakable, "East' Lynne" badly? enough -played' is the ne plus ultra of theatregoers, and "Rob Roy" and Wilkie Collins' ■ adapted are almost all that 'can be looked for. Of this list, decidedly the best performance on • Mi^s Juno's part was her study of Leah, which; is on the. whole' artistic, and certainly forcible.. Leah was, however, unfortunately. played for, two nights to empty benches, i 'f East Lynne," ' which followed on Friday last, drew a crowded and moist-eyed audience to witness perhaps the worst performance of the piece that has 1 been seen on Dunedin- boards' for a very long 1 time past.' 'Miss Juno has natural disadvantages to contend ' with in the part of Lady, Isabel,- and there was scarcly one member of the company besides who did not appear to feel himself or herself under a cloud. Mr Russell' handsomely .led the way with the most constrained- and unrecognisable Archibald Carlyle that I ever remember to have seen, and not even Mr M'Gowan was able to give a , satisfactory account >of himself. On Saturday evening came a popular hit in the shape of ' '--Rob Roy Macgregor," when Mr Russell, with bare calves, shaggy beard, and a real melodramatic roll in his voice, fairly took the I pit by storm. lam inclined to agree with the I ■ critic of a daily paper who found a too "uniform" boisterousness " about his performance, | but at the same" time I would give Mr Russell credit for a really good study of the caged wild beast on the occasion of his betrayal by Raahleigh. By far the best feature in this piece, however, was the Bailie Nicol Jaryie of Mr M'Gowan — an indisputably clever bit of character acting,— and by far the worst feature was <the singing, of which the less said the,. better. Monday and Tuesday evenings' were devoted to the performance of "Anne Sylvester," an adaptation by Mr M'Gowan of Wilkie Collins' novel, " Man and- Wife." In some of the scenes and situations of this work the adaptor has been successful, but in others, passages from the novel are served up with rather | too (little stage dressing, the result being that they drag— a thing to be avoided. In endeavour- j ing to connect the threads of the story, also; Mr.;M'.Gowan has done either too little or . too s much, >ithe result being that, there is j ■a< great cdeal of crowding, and that a - great deal ■ is nevertheless left > to the imagination or to. previous acquaintance with the story. Notwithstanding these little shortcomings, the piece, was very favourably received, Misa Juno giving . a study ,of the heroine which was most striking in its simple { dignity aud unaffected pathos. Mr Russell also 'played, very conscientiously and intelli* . gently Geoffrey Delamayn, and save that in the last act his .appearance, savoured too much ' of the Whitechapel bird-fancier, there was no fault to be found with him. Mr M'Gowan vraa amusingas the Scotch waiter Bishopriggs; but the remainder of the company did not rise above mediocrity, even if they attained that desirable standard. 1 > Kbok's- Diorama has been drawing only small houses at the Queen's Theatre, despite . the gift distribution which has been continued nightly. The season waß to close on Saturday} and the entertainment will next show at Invercargill. . i Ohristchurch is remarkably dull just now' as regards matters theatrical. - Amateur perf formances have been the only attraction for some time past. ' Mr Wilmott's Combination having completed their northern tour are now on' their way southward, and by last advices they were piaying a short season en route at Wellington, Here Mr Wilmott appears to have had " a • ' bruBh"'with.'the local press in consequence of an unfavourable critique, and to have requested''that th© 1 professional visits 'of the ' reporter to the theatre should be discontinuedl "We are therefore," remarks the journal in 'question, somewhat plaintively, " unable to j ; 'give our 'readers any further account of the I play or of the players." ' i 'We may shortly expect a visit from Mr ''Frank Cates, who, it is stated in an Australian -paper, intends to' play Frank Darlington T' Youth"') throughout New Zealand. J Mr Gates,' like the late Miss Blanche Stammers^ and Mr Fred . Marshall, originally made • his appearance in Australia as a member of .the London Comedy Company. ■ Since those days ,he appears to have made very rapid strides in his profession. ' ■ ' > Amongst the intended visitors to this Colony may also' be meneioned Messrs Walton, and W. G. Carey. • The latter was leading man hi i Miss Pomeroy's Company during their Indian tour, and is an actor of very good attainments! , , „ Australian* • News was cabled from Melbourne on Sunday last of the sudden death of Miss Blanche Stammers (Mrs Alfred ,Garner), by which the ..Australian stage has lost a bright, and capable actress, whose place it will be hard to ' fill: Those who remember, the days of Lyster and Garner's London Comedy Company will also remember the finished and forcible acting of . Miss Stammers as the imperilled wife in V Friends" (an adaptation of Sardou's "Nos Intimes "), her alternate vivacity and pathos as ' Helen Vavasour in Tom Taylor's "Old Men and Old Acres," and many other careful and intelligent studies. Indeed, her work was always careful, and when she imitated she invariably eboee a good model. Miss Stammers never boasted a robust physique^ but her shockingly sudden death is a surprise. The cablegram stated that' she played as usual at the Theatre Royal on the previous evening. Miss Louise Pomeroy has again taken a temporary farewell of Melbourne, having appeared during her recent season in an extraordinary number of characters, including the Countess Chandoce in " Led Astray," Camille, iieah the Forsaken, Lady Isabel, Beatrice, Lady Teazle, Juliet, and Hamlet. Miss romeroy has now undertaken a short tour of . tne provinces, and will then appear in Brisbane, after • which her London debut is again talked about. This, however, has been upon tne tapis for so long that ita realisation may almost be despaired of. At the Theatre Royal, Melbourne, "Romany l" y JLt A reached - the end of its and Mr Rignold has oponed at the Opera-house with •^JfflW T ' ondt >n.» Mr Bland Holt has "^^Si J?*?? P° s BeBsion of -the Royal; and wodtwed the Dr vry Lane drama, "Ptock"; I

so that Melbourne is just now well supplied in the sensational line.

" The Squire " (Mr A. W. Pinero's comedy) is a great success at the Melbourne Bijou. The principal part of Kate Verity is played by Miss Jenny Watt-Tanner, whose health is now sufficiently restored to allow her to resume her duties.

The Princess Theatre, Melbourne, will shortly be reopened with a rechauffe of comic opera— " Patience." "Pinafore," and "The Mascotte " being the chief attractions. It is clear that the triumvirate do not know what to do with this house.

Mr Alfred Moul, the erstwhile musical critic of tha Leader, has been the recipient of a farewell benefit concert in Melbourne prior to his departure for England. Miss Emilie Melville has opened a six' weeks' season in Adelaide with "The Royal Middy," and is drawing excellent houses. The ; fastidious are not, however, exactly satisfied as to the propriety of the libretto, and one paper' remarks :— " ' To the pure all things are pure,', but when an impure idea is clothed in similar , language, and emphasised by appropriate gestures in the acting, one requires to be deafly and blindly pure to overlook it." > j Mr Jas. Allison, lessee of the Theatre Royal,' Adelaide, has sailed for America in search of novelties for the Colonies. "Joe" still runs at the Theatre Royal, ' Sydney. ' Home and Foreign. Messrs Gilbert and Sullivan's new comic opera to follow' "lolanthe," at the Savoy Theatre, is to be ready in October. Rumours, are current that the piece is founded upon Tennyson's " Princess, and others that it nas its origin in one of Mr Gilbert's own " Bab Ballads." Nothing will probably be known for certain upon the point, however, for some months to come. Mr Dion Boucicault has lately been directing his energies upon a, dramatic version of Bret Harte's " Luck of Roaring Camp.',' It seems scarcely likely, however, that this pathetic little sketch can be successfully adapted for stage purposes. The discussion raised by the recent produc- 1 tion of Mr Salmi Morse's Passion Play at New York has led Mr Dion Boucicault to remind the world through the customary medium of an interviewee that he produced a Passion Play more than 25 years ago. It was brought out at the Gaiety Theatre in New Orleans in 1856, during Lent, and it ran for two months without interruption. It was a drama in five acts entitled "Una" or "The Crucifixion," and contained a simple story interwoyen with the persecution and crucifixion of Christ. The action of the drama began with the pursuit of Christ, instituted by the High priests, Annas, and Caiaphas, followed by His arrest and trial, and culminating in the tragedy on Calvary. There was no attempt made to prohibit its' production, and when it was brought out the Catholic clergy of New Orleans appeared to approve of it. , Lee Chin Goon, a Chinese actor, who ' has ' won great renown in San Francisco, is about to open a theatre in New York, where all the actors' are to be" Celestials " and no female performers will be allowed to appear on the stage.

The Meiningen Company will appear at the Italian Theatre, New York, next winter. Mr Charles Wyndham will make America his field of action for a long time to come. He will shortly return to England for a few weeks' holiday and c6mmence his next tour at Montreal in September, afterwards playing another season in New, York. Mr Wyndham's new Theatre in Northumberland Avenue is ' not likely to be completed until 1885. The Paris Opera-has now an orchestra of 95 and a chorus of 92 persons. As there is little hope that Wagner's latest .opera " Parsifal " will ever be allowed on the English stage, a plain dress performance of the work without dramatic action is to be given at the Albert Hall. The sacramental and Mary Magdalene incidents are considered quite ! sufficient to prevent " Parsifal " being learned for the English stage. A curious performance of a portion of "lolanthe " is said to have been recently, given at the Savoy Theatre. The Prince of Wales was dining at Sir Arthur Sullivan's private house, and the music was listened to by telephone. Mdme Albani made her welcome reappearance in opera at Covent Garden on May 19th. Mdme Patti was to follow suit on June 15th. The latter has been spending a short holiday at her Welsh castle (Craigy Nos), where she was received with a salute ot 21 guns. Concerning ladies, of the ballet, the Home News has the 'following :— The expense of bringing over a troupe of fifty dancers from England to America is said to be £&00 a weekj exclusive of principal dancers, music and rent, &c. And that is for an English troupe, which is the cheapest and best. The English balletgirls are said to be the prettiest and most graceful, and by far the easiest to get along •with; They may not be as skilful as those of Paris and Vienna, or the Spanish dancers, but they are the most pleasing. The principals might bebrougkt from other cities, but for the United States the coryphees have to be English girls. The reputation of the authors of the " Silver King" is by no means a shadowy one. Mr Walton Jones has undertaken to write no fewer than six different Christmas pieces, for as many different theatres, besides an Oriental fairy story for the Grand Theatre, Leeds. All this too has to be completed a month or two before the close of the year. The death is announced of Mdme Drouhet, once an accomplished actress, the honorary housekeeper and inseparable friend of M. Victor Hugo. The deceased lady was, in her early days, celebrated on the stage for her graceful deportment and refined enunciation. "His own Guest" is the unique title of a new comedy by Messrs A. Eyres and P. Blake, which was announced for production at the Opera Comique on May 19th. Mr Henry Irving recently entertained the Prince of Wales and about forty other gentlemen at supper on the Lyceum stage, which was turned into a handsome tent for the occasion. The Prince sat at Irving's right hand and the Duke of Sutherland on his left, whilst of the other guests only three were actors— Bancroft, Toole, and Fernandez — and two — Bernand and Sala— were critics. The farewell dinner to Mr Irving was fixed for July 4th. The lessee of the new Grand Theatre to be opened- at Islington offered some time ago £500 for the best original play sent in, and received no fewer than 166 pieces in reply. Only two of these were worth consideration, one by Mr G. F. Rowe and the other by Mr Sefton Parry. The latter — a melodrama — has been accepted and will t a produced in August. The following is a rather good anecdote re the stage door nuisance, caused by gentlemen who will interview favourite actresses during a performance : — A manager recently encountered a well-known man about town, just at the end of the passage. He had in his hand a huge bouquet done up in tissue-paper. A friend outsidewaswaiting and watching for him, as a Btnall boy waits and watches while his companion robs the orchard. "You can't cottie in here," said the manager, ' I only want

to—," began the intruder. " You can't come in here," reiterated the manager. The man about town was a man of presence of mind, and continued, "I only wanted to come in here, as I thought I should be sure to meet and then present you with this bouquet in admiration of your splendid conduct as a manager, and the lovely letters you write to the papers." Mr and Mrs Kondal were announced to travel the English provinces with " Impulse " at the conclusion of their London season.

An instance of genius allied to eccentricity is given in the person of Anton Dvorak, the composer, whose admirable "Stabat Mater" has recently been performed in London. Not very long ago the abode of this talented musician in Bohemia consisted of a Bimple sky-parlour, well lighted, but uncarpeted and sparsely furnished. At a table in the centre of this modest apartment the doughty composer was wont to sit in his shirt sleeves, smoking a huge china-bowled pipe, with a foaming tankard of M&rzen beer handy to his clutch, and his slender stock of body linen, fresh from the washtub, suspended on line* running above his head from corner to corner of the room. The other leading features of the scene were a small bed, a large grand piano, a a goodly collection of wine and beer bottles, and a dense atmosphere of smoke. It is now the fashion to provide historical and analytical programmes for mußical festivals, and Mr Joseph Bennett appears to have systematically turned his attention to this branch of literature. The programmes prepared by him for the Leeds festival, the Albert Hall, and Viard Louis concerts have attracted a great deal of notice. "LAs de Trefle" (The Ace of Clubs), M. de Courcelle's new piece, is likely to fill the coffers of Mdme Sarah Bernhardt at the Ambigu Theatre, Paris. The scheme is the detection of a murder by means of a card left in the hands of the murdered woman, and the situations are singularly striking from beginning to end, introducing novel and forcible phases of Parisian life. A. very realistic reproduction of a lower class music hall, and a free fight between the police and a set of thieves and card sharpers are among the sensations. Mr Edwin Booth was to sail for New York on June 9th, and was expected to appear at a matinee prior to his departure from London. ' There are already plenty of stangely named theatrical journals, but the latest and perhaps the most singular is the Sheboygan Bassoon, just started in the interests of music and the drama.

The National Society for Preserving the Memorials of the Dead has just completed the restoration of that forlorn tomb at Westminster wherein for some 135 years Ann Bracegirdle has lain at rest. The Theatre publishes some exceedingly touching reminiscences of the "Fedora," as produced at the Haymarket Theatre, is a great success, notwithstanding that the immediate share of Mr and Mrs Bancroft in the representation is limited to the perfect manipulation of two subordinate characters, those of a French diplomatist and a Russian countess. The weight of the undertaking falls upon the shoulders of Mrs Bernard Beere. Her study is wonderfully effective, but it is not so much a study of the part of " Fedora" as an elaborate imitation of its great originator, Sarah Bemhardt. The English actress throws passionate energy into her task, but with her Mdme Bernhardt's special effects are not reproduced. This is specially the case in the scene illustrative of a slow and painful death by poison, in which of course Mdme Bemhardt created a perfect furore in Paris. With her clever imitator this is far less effective than the healthier climax at the end of the preceding act. On the first night the curtain was raised three several times upon the latter situation.

Concerning Mrs Langfcry's Galatea, the New York Spirit of the Times says : "We do not especially admire the Galatea of Mary Anderson or of Catherine Rogers, but compared with that of Mrs Langtry they are like a sun compared to a match that will not light even' on