NOTES BY PASQUIN.

Otago Witness, Issue 1827, 26 November 1886, Page 28

NOTES BY PASQUIN.

Mr Mallaby left with his company last week for Oatnara, Titnarn, and the North. Before going he wandered out between the footlights and the curtain and delivered a speech to the handful of people present referring iv touching terms to the " bcurrility " of the critic who had affirmed that he (Mallaby) could never become an actor, and who .had objected to •' Saints and Sinners" as a dramatic work. Mr Mallaby was good enough to remark that the criticis scurrility could net be due to persoual animus, as he did •nob know the critic and the critic did nob know him> Mr Mallaby's conclusion, as I read it, is that the journalist was influenced by someone who was biassed by someone else who was prejudiced against rising genius iv the person of Mallaby. This is a good enough hypothesis, and it is far more convenient than the obvious alternative— viz., that the critic watched the performance conscientiously and wrote honestly what was a fact. Mr Wybert Reeve and his company opened at our Princess Theatre on Wednesday of this week for a month's season. Their plays are legion— "Dark Days," "Diplomacy," •• Impulse," "The Millionaire," "The Colonel," «• Only Dust," &0., &c. The new Te Aro Theatre in Wellington was opened last week by Messrs MacMahon and Leitch, with a performance of "The Silver King," in the presence of the Governor and a crowd that thronged the building. The hew house stands on the site of the old one, which was burned down in June 1879. It is built of brick, cemented over tho outside, and covers a space of 180 ft long by 60ft broad. The stage is 60ft deep, 59ft broad, and 70ft high, the front portion being of less altitude. The stage, from its great height, is most commo lious and easily worked from a mechanician's p.jiut of vie*. The prosceuium openiug is 28it Wide and 26ft high. Beneath the stage is a Concreted cellar, and at the back, divided by a b iok wall, there are dressing rooms. Tha prosceuium wall is also brick ; the auditorium is carefully designed to give every seat a clear view of the stage, and the architect, Mr Chatfield, had succeeded admirably. The stalls and pit.occupy the ground floor, as usual, the former having a capacity for 174 persons, the latter 'about 700. The stall seats are of iron, and are chairs of the folding pattern, and the dress circle is provided with similar conveniences of a design patented by Mr ChatfMd, and differing somewhat from the American chairs. The circle, which has accommodation for 202, besides ample standing room, presents a handsome iron front t* view, upholstered in stamped velvet, with large" mirrors at the end of each side wall. Th sre are no boxes. Above this section of the house m a family cirole, a novelty iv New Zealand theatres. It is of less ornate appear- ' anoe than the other divisions, but still more convenient than the pit The seats are wooden, and the walls and oeilings are of painted wood. There U room for 260 people. The auditorium is richly but not overpoweringly decorated. The general result is a warm and comfortable appearance in the building. The entrance t > the dress circle is a prettily decorated saloon, in whioh gold and fawn are the prevailing o ilours. On either side are cloak rooms, and in one corner a refreshment bar, where it is prop ised to serve tea and coffee. This saloon, or foyer, covers something- like 140 square yards. Leading out of it are escape doors into the stalls entrance, AH the stairs are broad, and have a very easy grade. The building fronts on Manners street, in whioh all the entrances are situated between them being two shops. The total cost, including land, is about £20,000. The Southland Times, referring to the Mallaby oration, says : — Mr Mallaby is a second Herr Bandmann, but without the fiery German's abilities as an actor. The theatrical critics of the Otago press must all have been biassed, as not one had a word to say in unqualified praise of hi* appearances. Mr Bland Holt has secured the Australian and New Zealand rights of " A Run of Luck," the new Drury Lane melodrama. " Indiana," the next venture at the Avenue, »8 to have a preliminary innings at the Comedy Theatre, Manchester, with a regular "first night" in London afterwards. Great things are expected of Mr Arthur Roberts' part, Mat of. the Mill, and the production is to be signalised by the debut as a musical conductor 5a London of Mr John Crook, who has long been a popular favourite in Manchester. This is the composer of the comic opera "The King's D^iwions," which was produced in Dunedin by the Dunning Company. Quite the most dreadful accident on record ha^ happened to that nay dog, Mr Edward Solomon; composer of " Billee Taylor," &f. Of ecvirsft it is "all on account" not of Eliza but of Miss Lillian Russell. He has been taken ignomitiiously into custody and charged at the M irlborough street Police C'lurt with committing biicamy by marrying feloniously, on May 10, XBSS, in the State of New Jersey, America, Miss Helen Louie Leonard ( Miss Lillian Russell)j his wife Jane Miss Lily Grey) being then living. Evidence of the first marriage and of the desertion of wife and child two years after was given. Evidence of the second is coming from America. On being charged, the composer of "Billee Taylor " remarked to tho detective, " I admit that I did get married in America, or anyhow that I went through gome ceremony, but I wa9 not aware at the time that my wife was living, as I nad not heard anything of her for several years." Worst of all bail, was fixed by tho magistrate at such a lofty figure that the unlucky Solomon instill languishing in gaol. That fortunate trio, Gilbert, Sullivan and ©'Oyley Cartp., havo divided between them jfiIOO.OOO as profits of "The Mikado" performances in London and elsewhere.

A sensational " national " drama called " God Save the Queen," by Messrs Palgrave and Gover, has been produced at Laiiger's Amphitheatre. Jt is good enough in its way, but the title (says a London paper) has but little to do with the drama, which might more appropriately havo been called "Dynamite and the Derby," or * l Oovent Garden Market in a Calm," or •' The Principal Villain and the Forsaken Flower Seller:"

Miss Forteseui? hns sailed for America, prudently effecting an insurance on her frocks for £2"X)3 before s«-arfcing. As usual in the case of actresses who are young and Miss Fortescne has given her American manager a fcond in the penal Bum of 50,000 not to marry for six months.

The new farcical comedy "Curiosity," by Derrick, author of "Confusion." This is what • facetious London cxitio has to say about it : Just as in " Confusion " all the fun was ovolved out of a baby and a dog, so in •' Curiosity" Qvetythl&ix depends upon a back tooth and a banjonV I^ere; however, ftHl similarity e.nds. $9otb to B*y, the story is thinner than a Weish

fasting-girl* and horse play is made to do duty for humour most of the time. The one effort at construction is of the "suggestive" order of architecture— and there you are, you know, as I will show without further delay. Vashti Mole, an elderly spinster, ruus " a select boarding establishment*' which is seemingly a sort of che ip aud nasty Agapemone. Bolbillery (a fat and fatuous poet) and Mr and Mrs Bangerpush are boarders. Bolbillery writes execrable verses himself*; not content with this, he recites a couple of stanzas from Punch, which, it is only fair to say, are worse than his own — and are recognised as such. Miss Mole has a painful buniou on her little toe. Mrs Bangerpush has a decayed molar. Vashti loves Bolbillery, who returns her passion but abhors bunious. Mrs Bangerpush loves her husband, who loves her but hates bad teeth. Hence the bunion and the decayed molar are enveloped in secrecy by their respective owners. Bolbillery and Bangerpush are going up to town. Vashti and Mrs B write to Whittaker (chiropodist) and Dobson (dentist) requesting their immediate attendance. Of course the latter is intercepted by Bangerpush or Bolbillery, who, equally of course, hide in the conservatory for future business. Enter Whittaker and Dobson, smirking goatishly. Conversation ensues— almost every sentence susceptible of a double meaning. Pronounced agony of the people in the conservatory, which increases when Vashti and Whittaker and Mrs B. and Dobson retire to "the snuggery" for the necessary operations to be performed. Presently they return radiant with joy. Bolbillery and Bangerpush are much shocked, and while the partie carree are lunching, attack them with a squirt and a pea-shooter. By and by all the dramati personsae are locked up in the conservatory as supected dynamiters. Here they somehow manage to explain the tooth and buuion business, and it being now time for the curtain to come down, the suspicion of dynamite is removed, though not explained, and all is then over.

Only last week came the news of an attack upou a lion-tamer by a lion that presumably objected to the taming process, preferring to remain wild as nature intended. This week there is intelligence of an exoiting scene in a menagerie where a performer named Captain Henri c&tne off second best, and was severely bruised and torn in an encounter with a bear. The bear put ou the hug somewhat unexpectedly, and when a bear hugs it is not of much use struggling to be free. Is is suggested (and not prematurely) that rome restriction be placed upon these life-risking showmen. There is big booking for Wilson Barrett at the Star Theatre, New York. His American namesake (Lawrence Barrett) has decided out of friendly feeling to rent an opposition theatre in the same city at the same time. A new tenant has been secured for the Olympic Theatre, the indefatigable Mrs Conover, having at last had enough of it. An adaptation of Miss Braddon's story " Wyllard's Weird " is to be produced. A London paper relates a theatrical idyll as follows: — "A certain masher (who shall be nameless) loved a pretty chorister, and sought her hand in marriage. She, however, made other arrangements. Mortification set in, and the poor masher was for a while inconsolable, but presently he healed love's hurt by wooing and winning another chorister. And since he could not prove to his new love that her image was graven on his heart, he took steps to have her front name tattooed in big letters all the way up his arm. Who shall say that the days of chivalry are over ?" The Lord Lonsdale- Violet Cameron Comic Opera Company sailed for New York in the same steamer that carried General Booth, of the Salvation Army. There is some anxiety lest the artists should land on the other side converted, and want to procession in army uniform with tambourines.

Madame Pauline Lucca has commenced a tour in Scandinavia, singing first at Copenhagen " under royal patronage." Madame judic has just concluded a tour through the name country, where her performances have been witnessed by English, Danish, Greek, Russian, and Swedish royalty. Who is " the Australian funambulist ? " Do we know her in these parts ? I ask the question because the lady seems to be doing wonders at the Westminster Aquarium, London. The Referee says :— " Also there is Ella Zuila, the Australian funambulist, who walks and rnns on a very long rope or wire stretched high up in the Aquarium roof. Ella carries a chair, a table, and other furniture with her, and varies the proceedings by planting her furniture ? on the rope mid way and taking solid and liquid refreshment. Also she carries her daughter, a growing damsel, who herself funambulates cleverly TUen Ella blindfolds herself in a big sack, aud trots merrily along all the way back ; and, to wind up, scuds rapidly backwards and forwards along the rope on a bicycle. It is a wonderful performance, but rUky- very risky."