THE STAGE IN AUSTRALIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 1927, 26 October 1888, Page 28

THE STAGE IN AUSTRALIA.

Notes By Scalfax. Melbourne, October 15. Another very quiet week to put upon the list ; steady business at most of the houses, but nothing startling or out of the way. We have had one or two elegant suicides, a fight between two young girls for the affections of a lover of the larrikin class, 6everal railway accidents, and any number of burglaries ; but they can hardly be introduced into this column. The Exhibition i>» piling up money as fast as ever, but the great concerts have lost some of their popularity owing to Mr Cowen's absence in Sydney. They are beginning to consider it a poor day at the Exhibition now if the receipts do not reach £ICG. "Hands Across the Sea" is drawing well at the Theatre Royal, and appears likely to contiuue doing so for a few weeks yet. When all the country cousins are in town for the Gup we will find the theatre packed full every night.

It is just the kind of drama the aforesaid country cousins will like. Mr Warner has secured the Australian rights of Mr Haddon Chambers' drama, " Captain Swift," which is now tunning in London, and appears to be a good deal after bhe style of "Jim the Penman." On Friday Mr Warner received a cablegram to the effect that the drama was producing excellent profits even yeb. The Bijou programme remains unchanged from last week, " In Chancery " being the staple attraction. On Friday next Mr G. S. Titheradge will bake a well-deserved benefit, appearing in •• David Garrick " and " Kerry." In the first Me Titheradge will be undoubtedly good, and in the second he will have to work against the records left by the very naughty old Dion Boucicault and Mr J. C. Williamson, and there are many people who prefer Williamson to Boucicault. Mr Titheradge is a very old favourite here, and an overflowing house is sure. Miss Essie Jenyns and the Holloway company are still at the Princess Theatre, although I told you last week they would have left on Friday night. That was because I misread the date on an elaborate guide-book to the series of operas up to Christmas promised by Messrs Williamson, Garner, and Musgrove. On Saturday afternoon Miss Jenyn3 played " Twelfth Night" in aid of the Hospital for Sick Children and Lady Loch's fund, a la Miss Genevieve Ward, but the weather and the Caulfield races were against her, and the attendance was a poor one. On Saturday evening "Cymbeliue" was again put on, with only meagre results ; and, so far as anyone can judge from outside view, the present season has been a failure. On Tuesday Miss Jenyns benefits in *' Pygmalion and Galatea," and she leaves for London early in next month. No date has yet been fixed for her appearance in London, and no arrangements will be made until she gets there. It is, however, quite agreed, almost, that she will not have an opening before the spring of next year. The opera season positively commences on Saturday next with " Olivette." Mr Alfred Dampier has nob found any very surprising gold mine in " His Natural Life" at the Alexandra Theatre, even if he did get a public letter of thanks from Mrs Marcus Clarke for paying her an nnasked-for royalty. Perhaps the fact that he has had a similar letter before has had its effect. On Saturday he produced " The Green Lanes of England," a drama which ha 3 been worked to death in the colonies, but which Mr Dampier always found a sure card in Sydney. At the present time it is hard to say what he may make out of the Alexandra Theatre, but his prospect does not look very brilliant. In Sydney he had a good following both ab the Gaiety and the Royal Standard theatres, the latter a place you had to get to by tram-oar unless you lived in the neighbourhood. Our theatres, in that contrast which we always show to Sydney and Sydney always shows to us, j are all •' very adjacent," as the land boomers \ say, and Mr Dampier may yet succeed in building up a popularity which will make his pro- I raised pantomime a success, but I think he will have to wake up a little. " The Mystery of a Hansom Cab " came to an end «t the Opera Hoase on Friday, although the management tried to work up a sudden interest by using for the cab scene the vehicle of the ' cabman Orange, who got very drunk on Saturday week, and drove into the River Yarra over a cliff of about 70f b, and yet managed on Monday to recover both horse and cab with only slight damages. He, with the providence that attends drunken men, fell into a wattle tree and then on to a soft bank, but the horse and cab went into the river. The horse managed to break from the harness, and was found on Monday in a paddock on the other bank all sound, but somewhat scratched. The cab was fished up with only some glass broken. On Saturday Mr Travers Vale produced a new drama, " The , Artist," bub where he gob it from is best known to himself. Miss Alice Deorwyn and Mr W. G. Carey had the leading parts, and a rather weak . company — which included our old friend Mr Harry Daniels— filled the cast. On Saturday next, as you already know, the new Simonsen Opera Company open at this house. Miss Adelaide Detchon gave her final performance ab the Athenseum Hall on Saturday, and a careful consideration of her programmes leads me to think that undoubted as her ability is in a certain number of recitals, it appears to be confined to just about that certain number, some of which came up every night with a regularity which— tell it not in Gath— became monotonous when you attended almost every recital, just as they came towards the end. In Mr Bending Miss Detchon has a soloist and accompanist who is of immense service to her. Miss Detchon will now tour the colonies with our stamp of approval in the shape of newspaper criticisms galore. The Jungfr&u Kapelle follow her at this hall. " The Brook," at St. George's Hall, turns out to be the very brook we expected last week; and the only real novelty about the Victoria Hall company is that that really excellent gymnast, Ouda, has returned to them. ' Madame Garetta, his adopted mother, and the wondrous pigeon charmer of whom I have already spoken, returned to America last mail. The many theatrical friends of tho late Mr Arthur Redwood, who died in Sydney some time ago, have subscribed to and erected over his grave at Rookwood Cemetery a handsome monument showing a broken marble column. on a marble base with this inscription, "In memoriam, Arthur Redwood, who on tho stage of life played a manly and genial part, this tribute of sincere regard is erected by fellow artists and friends who feel that they have lost in him one whom to know was to love." Mr Redwood (who was a ne&r relative to a high dignitary injour country of what is generally known as the Mother Church, as ho has often told me and I believe) was one of the best of the very email company brought by Mr Arthur Garner from London a few years ago, of whioh no less than three died here, himself being first, Mr Phil Day following, and Mr Harry Taylor, the notice of whose death must be fresh in your minds. i Readers may remember the case of Gordon Lawrence who was arrested at the Exhibition for masquerading as an attractive female, and is now in a cool and healthy hotel at Pentridge, where he will remain for six months, and still have time to see the close of the Exhibition. It is stated now that he was fortunate -in being able to obtain £20 from Mr Fergus Hume ia Sydney. Poor old John L. Hall is dead. His end came in the Melbourne Hospital on Sunday from pulmonary disease, and his funeral takes place to-morrow from Henningham's Hotel. We shall miss " Captain Gingah." He was of the old school of comedians, a class that will be as rare as the dodo before long. Mr Hall was a leading star in the early days of burlesque at the old Princess, a fact moat of our papers in mentioning his death have forgotben, and was afterwards for a long time in management in Liverpool. He returned to us about the middle of the 70's, and played for a long time at the Bijou Theatre, of which he afterwards became the manager, and was the first Dick Deadeye in the first performance of " H.M.S. Pinafore," when Miss Alice Dunning Lingard was the Josephine, and her husband, William Horace Lingard, the Sir Joseph Porter. Hia first wife, professionally known as Miss Emily Wiseman, died about 1882, and his second wife, Miss Jessie Grey, is now in Queensland. Somehow Mr

Hall drifted away from the ranks of the regularly engaged, and wandered over the colonies with small companies, his last appearances in this city, if I remember rightly, being at St. George's Hall with a minstrel company, and as the grave-digger in "Hamlet" for Mr Charles Warner. lam afraid he was in straitened circumstances before bis last illness.

Sydney programmes remain the 6ame almost as last week. Miss Carrie Swain is playing " The Tomboy " at the Royal ; Mr George Leitch and " Sithors to Grind " are at the Criterion ; and the American tragedian, Mr George Miln, and his wife, Mi3s Louise Jordan, are at Her Majesty's. Mr Gilbert Parker's version of "Mr Barnes of New York," under the title of "The Vendetta," follows at this house. Miss Amy Sherwin opens a concert season of five nights at the V.M.C.A. rooms to-morrow, and a similar season follows in Brisbane, after which she sails for Batavia, to commence a three years' journey round the world. Miss Gertrude Powys, a young lady who came out here as a theatrical apprentice to Mr Harry St. Maur, and broke her agreement by refusing to go to Adelaide, about which a lot of law was promised and only a very small quantity afforded, has settled into private life. She is now married to a J.P. of Port Darwin, and rejoices in the name of Mrs Olaf Jansen. You may not believe this, but it is really true. An Italian count has been arrested for stealing two tins of glyceriue soap from the Exhibition, where he was employed as an attendant. He asserts that he is a real count, and gives an elaborate address in Rome. Thus is the gilt taken off another stock joke of the comic writers. It was generally represented that no Italian would ever use soap except under extreme pressure, and then only as an article of diet, and now here is a man who actually steals it and tarnißhes the glory of a name which may be as old as the Colonnas. Upon second thoughts he may be an impostor, as he gives his name as Julius Duohatel, which sounds very French. He is described as being of gentlemanly manners and extremely well dressed. There is hope still.