AUSTRALIAN STAGE GOSSIP.

Otago Witness, Issue 2157, 27 June 1895, Page 37

AUSTRALIAN STAGE GOSSIP.

(Specially Written for the Otago Witness.) Pear. Pasquin. —Wallace King, the silvery tenor, now in Adelaide with. Tommy Hudson's Surprise Party, came out to the colonies with Ilicks-Sawyer Minstrels. The troupe, which consisted of 26 people, sailed from Sun Francisco July 28, 1888. Of the other 25, Charlie Pope and Irving Sayles are with llickards at Melbourne Opera House ; George and John Connors are in Auckland ; Ed. Connors is. I believe, also in some part of Maoriiand ; W. H. Downs went to London, where, if I mistake not, Will Johnson followed ; Harry Thomas is in Auckland ; Cha3. Washington died in Sydney, and Frank Duprey, the clever trombone *oloist, in the East. Jack Evans, Billy Speed, and Horace (" Don't call me ' Horrie ' ; niy name's 'Horace'") Copeland are somewhere in the Aubtralias; Chas. B. ("Old Man") Hicks i 3 touring with his '-' Orioles" in the East, where also is W. Nunn, the cornetist, with Harmston's Circus ; but what became of the other nine? Does anyone know ? Also, where is Eva Germaine? Wallace Brownlow, of the Royal Comics, was born in London, and first went on the stage at London Imperial with a scratch company under a bogus manager in November 1883. January 1884 saw him as tenor, understudy, and chorister in the fir3t " Prince3B Ida " tour under the management of D'Oyley Carte, with whom he remained till 1891, touring America and the Continent as understudy with "The Mikado." Amongst the many parts he has played are the following :—: — Sir Richard Cholmondely in "Tht Yeoman of the Guard " Luiz... .„ m» Mr« "The Gondoliers" Prince John ... t .. v "Ivanhoe" Due de Longueville ..• » -•• "Laßasoche 1 William ... .„ M it "Blue-eyed Susan" j Prince Gaetan .„ „, m ... "Incognita" Trabucis ... v " The, Magic Opal " Dr Manacle... ... ... h "The Golden Web" Fernand ,„ „i M « "Mam'zeUe Nitoucha Pippo nr tv <v H <•• "LaMascotte" 'chttlciFwfkt ,2 if, v "Hadame F*Tart»

The Mnpgie Moore Company produced for the first time in Australia, at Sydney Royal 1, Walter Reynolds's Irish drama " SwEEr Innisfail." Denny Doon H. It. Roberts Mr Considine Lachlan M'Gowau Michael Ferris E. B Russell Crithßhua , ... ... Oily Decline Archie D.ily , ...R.Stewart James Dockrell Harry Daniels Humphrey Daly ... M , ,M, M ... J. P West Mr Filz-jendd Bert Royle Larry O'Keef Joe Kennedy Jack Mulligan — Money O'Kfelly , „. ...— Westmore O'liorman P. Egan Brown , S Moigan Oona Considine Maggie More Const vice Considine Linda Raymond Rosin Dubh L'Uira Roberts Judy Finnigan M. Melville Bridget Miss Lane There are no new Irish dramas any inovj tlnn there are snakes in Ireland. Why Bhould there be ? The late Mr Boucic ault, when he left furce comedy and became the Lever, the Lover, and the Cirlotou of the stage, exhaiibted all the probabilities of pictimsqu>: Hibernian chaiacUriaation, urban, suburban, and rural, and told many enticing tales withall in which the primul eldest passions were permanently chained to the chariot wheel of the stage artificer. He made us delightful plays, which are perennially green aud beautiful like Ireland itself, and the best of any other Anglo-Sixon melodrainatist is no better than his. Incited, we should be thankful not that there is no new thing under the caption "lii.sh romantic drama," bufc tint the centre of iinita'ion is a fellow of such infinite humour as BoueicuiU. Aud each of his missioners should be welcomed as persons who spread agood caiiae. Forthativason"The County Wicklow" at Her Majesty's and "Sweet lnnUfail" at the Theatre Royal may be regarded as minor blessings to the many people who find life on tb is si^eof the orchestra a strictly businesslike affair, ar.d like a change. TheßO plays, to i, have merits of their own. " Sweet lunisfij.il*> for example, is a Kiost appetising story of moral crookedness (served with tar a Id processserver ; served with feathers a li process-server), the afilictions of the evicted, of, the constancy of the daughters of Erin, and of ihe certainty of virtue's earthly crown. Here is Miss Maggie Moore as one of the children of a farmer, pior in pocket j but richer in heart than Jcphthah, judge of Israel, in that he bis two fair tiaugh tens. Miss Moore is the soubtette daughter, the type that is Embodied in Arrah and in Moyua ; Mi*s Lilida Raymond, a new actress of handsome prudence, who speaks her lines with- intelligence and feeling, her foil, who has fecretly married the son of the squireen landlord, like Eily O'Connor. Mr Roberts is Denny Doon, •' a rale Irish laddie," with a tongue that has scraped the stoae of blarney, the wit of Conn and Shaun the Post, and a voice for einging pretty songs. "The County Wicklow " has a plpt of much the same character which the author— whose name "does not tr.inspirs"—has clothed in mili nry garb as though he had fixed on the story of " Peep o' Day," and then been allured to the endearing young charms of Claire Ffolliott. The raisfoitunes of tho young and handsome O'Neill, an expatriated patriot, who returns to his country and his sister to find the latter iv love with the very Engli-h officer who is mounting guard over the home of the O'Neill's father (Oh Boucicault, Oh "The Shaughran!") make the nominal motive of this play. In reality the interest is in Shan Dhuney, his faithful attendant; in Colonel O'Ruffurty, an elderly soldier who loves Miss O'Neill ; and in Humpy Callagliau, a sny and inforimr, whose ambition is the propinquity of the law and the O'Neill ancl the go'den guineas thereunto pertaining. B/ Wicklow farm, the wood of Carrig-na-Muck, the Devil's Glen (one of the etrihly footprint* of his Satiiiic Majesty, as a m.ig.izine writer has lately pointed out), and the Penh Ghoul Cvc, and in noisome prison cell, an adventurous fstory of love and hatred, of chase and capture, pays out, until in the end Lady Peggy O'Donoglme- O'Neill's bonnie sweetheart — returns from England with a pardon. It i* a play with possibilities of eutcrtnu menfc which will be better revealed when Mr Verner gets more settled down to the part and the company. On Saturday night he was not himself at all at all. This is the more unfortunate because the acting was admirable otherwise. Mr Sweeney, for instance, gave a strikingly powerful representation of Humpy C.illaghan, ihe misshaped^informer who went about spying on good people, I and was alternately spurned by the military and outwitted by Sban. It was piecisely the kind of impei'aouation that might be expected of an actor whose humour is not restricted to mere buffo mery, and who is, in fact, one of the best Irish comedians we have had here these many days.— Daily Telegi aph. The following is the cast of 41 The County Wicklow, a Story of the Past." ! Shan Dhuney ... ... • ... Charlps Erin Verner Maurice O'Neill Harry Plimmer •Phelim O'Neil ... Sterling Whyte Captaiu Grandby Scot Inglis ! Colo-el Rtfferty ... ". D'Orsay Ogden Humpy OVallaghan J W. Sweeney Sergeant Bromley Harry Hod-on Father O'Kelly Frank Harcourt Nora O'Neil Agnes Knight I Lady Pepgv O'Donoghue ... Athena Claudius Bidalia M'Guffin Lily Roch fort Mary O'Ncil Mima Phillips Augusta Dargon Piercy (formerly Miss Dargon) in the Bankruptcy Court, Sydney, June 4, applied foi an order on the Bank of New South Wales to pay £33fiG 9a Id, being the amount won by a ticket in Adams's sweep on the last Australian Cup. Mis Piercy drew the winner, Havoc, the ticket being in the name of E Drake. Meanwhile, her husband, Dr Kllis Someis Piercy. became bankrupt and the official assignee sought to attach the prize money. Mrs Piercy objected to this on the ground that the money for the tickets came out of her private purse. She stated that Bhe was originally an actreFS, and since her marriage, 15 years ago, had continued to give Shakespearian readings, which she had used as a means of recupeiating her private purse. In two Shakespearian readings given in Auckland in October 1893 she made £40 net ; at the Thames, Maoriland, one reading netted £17. In September JBQ4 she gave thros readings in the New England district, and the three, she thought, netted | about £40. In America she had had as much as | 3000dol. The largest sum she had hii-1 in that j way in Australia would be about £00, and the smallest would be at least a few pounds. In addition to money received in the above way, private friends had from time to time within the past throe years sub'cribed money for her benefit. Between September 19 and October 12, 1893. she received two instalments of this character from Mr Butler-one of £50 and the other of £60. In the same month a lady gave her her husband's cheque for £50. Justice Manning made an order that Mrs Piercy should receive the money, with costs against the official assignee; also that the bank should allow her interest at the rate of 5 per cent, on the money from March 3. Take the following, for the benefit of baldheads and "dear old chappies " .—There is practically nothing else to invite attention. Even Mins Palotta is to be considered merely a3 an adorable vision in blue tights, and Miss Hobson has more costumes than lives. On the other hand, every praise is due to Mi3B Florence Lloyd's rendering of Lord Clan6ide. With the advantage of a superb physique she succeeds better than any actress we remember to have seen in that most difficult of tasks— personating a boy. She completely disguises those tell-tale curves that almost invariably destroy the illusion— nay, even surmounts the incongruities of the bifurcated garment. A3 a rule there is something about a man's way of sporting a skirt aud a woman's way of wearing trousers that makes the deception patent to all observers. Mies Lloyd, save for the feminine quality of her voice, pasge3 the ordeal with marvellous success. She looks like a boy, she walks like a boy, and, did she but talk like a boy, might easily do a lot of damage among the susceptible hearts of the ladies.— Yours truly, June 12. Bis.

— Solitary confinement is calculates, doctors state, to produce melancholia, suicidal mania, and loss of reason. Nine months of abeolutely solitary confinement are almost certain to result in the mental ruin of the convict.