PRINCESS THEATRE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2288, 6 January 1898, Page 39

PRINCESS THEATRE.

"A ROYAL DIVORCE" THIS EVENING

The final performances of the " Sign of the Cross " were given on Saturday night and Monday eveniDg. On the latter occasion especially there was a very numerous and a thoroughly appreciative aud'ence. The drama was effectively produced, and the attendance and applause indicated that the drama would, if ifc had nofc to give place to another new and attractive play, remain popular for a considerable time.

This (Taesday) evening Mflßßrs Williamson and Musgrcve will subnrib the second attraction of their dramatic season here with the first production in this colony of "A Royal Divorce," a play that o»ly recently has made a great sen°ation on the other side, its run in the various cities almost equalling the phenomenal seasons of its predecessor " The Sign of the Cross." The drama deals principally with that central figure of romance and history, the great Napoleon. The remarkable renaissance which has lately been witne-sed in Napoleonic literature fkfds an outlet iv the play so forcibly written by the late Mr W. G. Wills. We are invited by tha dramatist to look at Napoleon, not only as the inviucible captain in the field, as the dariug political economist with armies at his back to enforce his theories, as the erganiser of new social aud industrial conditions in his conquered territories, as the statesman-soldier with an untiring policy of national as well as personal aggrandisement, bub also as the man of heart aud feeling — as the lover, the husband, the father. The drama brishlfia with historical characters — names well-

known to everyone. Thus we hare the central figures — Napoleon (Mr Julins Knighb), Josephine (his empress, Miss Ada Ferrar), Empress Marie Louise (Miss Elliott Page), M. de Talleyrand (Mr W. F. Havrtrey), Marquis de Beaumont (Mr Gaston Mervale), General Angereau (Mr H. J. Carvili), Murat (King of Naples, Mr Harry Hi!!,), Marshal Ney (Mr Grainger), Stephanie de Baauharnais (Miss Liuda Raymond), Madame Vernois (Miss Nellie Mortyne), and numerous others. Apart from the intensely interesting plot of the play, the mounting and costuming is said to be unequalled ia the history of the colonial stage. . Some very fine tableaux depic'ing the mosb stirring events in that tumultuous period are shown, of which it is reported as eclipsing in vivid realism and stirring i ff ect anything iv the way of stage pictures yet presented in the colonies. They comprise "The Retreat from Moscow," two scenes on the historic battlefield "At Waterloo," and the final scene of all " The Imperial Captive at St. Helsna" — Napoleon standing immovable, with bowed head, upon a pinnacle of rock gazing oub across a sea lighted mouruf ully by the westering Bun. The artists who have given such excellent accounts of themselves in the just-ended production will doubtless still further add to their popularity this evening.