MR MILN'S SEASON AT THE PRINCESS THEATRE.

Otago Witness, Issue 1891, 1 May 1890, Page 28

MR MILN'S SEASON AT THE PRINCESS THEATRE.

" EIOHAED III."

The appearance of Mr George O. Miln before a New Zealand audience haa been looked forward to with some degree of interest, and 16 was therefore to be expected that a good house would greet Mr Miln on his opening night, Monday last, l'he attendance In the oirole was somewhat interfered with by a oounter attraction, but the downstairs portion of the house wai filled to overflowing. The piece that was selected for the opening was " Richard III," which haa been styled " the significant boundary stone that separates the works of Shakespeare's youth from the immortal period of his fuller splendour." It is. as all Shakespearian students know, the last of a aeries of historical plays written by the great playwright, and appears as the direct continuation of " Henry VI." This continuity between the two pieces is invariably preserved by the performance, as a Borfc of prologue, of the concluding scene of the latter play— that in which the news is borne to Henry in the tower of the murder of his aon at Tewkesbury by Gloucester. There is no play of Shakespeare's that is more essentially a single character play than ia " Biohard III," but since the time when Burbage'a marvellous creation of the part of the " maddening monarch" entranced the theatre-goers of the Elizabethan period most of the greatest actors of England— notably Garrick and Kean— have treated the part as a favourite one. From the Chronioles of Holinshed and Hall, whioh contain the life of Biohard, for the most part in a translation of the Latin by Thomas Moore, who had his information probably from Archbishop Morton, a contemporary, the same person who appears in the play as the Bishop of Ely, ifc is believed that Shakespeare found the following " scant but acute touches," as Professor tiervimis terms them, for the characterisation of the tyrant : — " Richard was born witb;teetb ; he was Ugly, his left shoulder higher than the right. Wickedness, anger, envy, belonged to his nature ; a quiok, sharp wit to his mind. He was a good captain ; with large gifts he got him unateadfast friendship, for which he was fain to pill and spoil in other places, and got him steadfast hatred. Olose and secret, a deep dissembler, lowly of countenance, he was at the same time imperious and arrogant of heart, disdainful even in death, outwardly companionable where he inwardly hated, not letting to kiss whom he thought to kill: despitious and cruel, not for evil will alway, but oftener for ambition and policy. If his safety or hiß ambition interfered, he spared neither friend nor foe." In the development of this character, which is really an exposition of the nature of tyranny, Shakespeare adhered somewhat closely to the lines of the chroulcle. Not one of these traits, it has been said, whioh appear not unfreauently to contradict each other, has been omitted by Shakespeare, and we might also say that he has not added one to them ; bub he has given life to the lifeless touches, harmony to the contradictory, and this in a manner certainly demanding the study of the most profound actor and his rarest gifts. Such is something of the nature of the character in which Mr Miln made his bow to this oolony. It Is a character which doubtless, like many other of the characters delineated by Shakespeare, admits of many interpretations, but the interpretation whioh Mr Miln gave may be said to be the most favoured one 'amoDg those who have given the deepest thought to the subject. We find Kichard as a man who despised himself on account of his deformity, but who was nothing if not ambitious, and had a thorough contempt for other men. This contempt was founded upon his own apparent superiority of intellect and upon the selfreliance that was inspired by the comparison which he made between himself and the people whom he saw around him and with whom he was brought into contact. The feeling of mental superiority whioh made him to ridicule and despise others made him also, to quote one of the commentators, " a desplser of every moral law," and stamped upon him " that unshackled nature which disregards every tie of blood, eveiy barrier of right, and every moral scruple." The ambition which was the result of his superiority of mind la generally accepted as the spring of all the tyrant's actions, and hypocrisy is theprincipal means which he employed in the achievement of his purposes. Whether this be the view that the reader takes or not, it will not be dispute i that from his own point of view MrMiln'srepreaentation was a disti nctlyskilf ul and masterly one. He has obviously made a very close study of the part, and he portravß in living colours the dissimulating character of the deformed king, whose hypocrisy was equalled only by his valour. If there were two scenes in which Mr Miln'a performance « as specially noteworthy, they were the one in which he woos and wins Lady Anne, though she knowt him to have been the murderer of her hus band, whose corpie sho was following ; and the other was that in whifh, with spleudidly simulated reluctance, he yields to the petit'ons of Buckingham and the Lord Mayor that he should accept the crown. In the later scenes Mr Miln's declamatory action, amounting occasionally to vehemence. Has less effective than his earlier scenes, hut he may be congratulated upon what was, in all, undoubtedly a performance of sterling merit. The support that he received from the rest of h's company was unfortunately of hardly so satisfactory a kind as had been expected, but in a play in which the title role absorbs so very much of theinteiestln the performance this circumstance was leas damaging than it will be if it should be apparent in the pieces that are announced for S reduction upon the withdrawal of that under notice [r H. N. Douglas, who as an old favourite, received a particularly warm welcome, had comparatively little to do as Richmond, but it was done so satisfactorily as to have made it a pity that his services were not more utilised. Mr Collet Dobson acquitted

himself well as Henry VI, but Mr Montgomery's representation of Buckingham was marred by the speed with whioh the actor delivered his speeches and the singular way in which he chopped into pieces many of his words. The Impersonations of the uuke of Norfolk, Lord Stanley, Oatesby, and other male characters call for no comment, and none of the ladies made particularly favourable impressions. Miss Kate Douglaa appeared us Queen Elizabeth, Miss Hamilton as Lady Anne, and Miss Bowman aa the Duchess of York ; but these were all rather colourless representations. Misses Strathmore and Stevenson impersonated the young princes. The characters of Clarence and Margaret wore not represented, these being the principal of those which want of time necessitated being eliminated. The piece was mounted in good style, the dresses being exceedingly handsome and appropriate, while some of the " eets ' were most commendable. " The Merchant of Venice " wai announced for production on Wednesday night,— too fate for notice in this column.