WELLINGTON WING WHISPERS

Otago Witness, Issue 2289, 13 January 1898, Page 39

WELLINGTON WING WHISPERS

By P. PtOHPTEa.

J&nunry 6.

Dear Pasquin, -The great and go:g?ous "Djia-Djin," illustrated by the PuiUrl Opera Company, closes its Wellington season tc-night. The enterprise of Tom Pollard in brit giugr such a show round our colony can only be called great. When he geta to Dunedin the difficulty will be how to put on the magnificent sets. Tho fault abjut tbe music is that ifc is on the ioo light .side. There are no airs iv it which males the pin ivhistlo and go tip, tap. tap with tho fch Alt the same, the term comes involuntarily, " Djia-Djia " the Gorgeous;. To-morrow night "In Town" makes the change of bill — " Boccaccio "to follow

Tom Hudson's Surprise Party finish up a rattling good season at the Exchange Hall on Saturday night. The panto, season at the Opera Housedoas not seem to have affected Tom's finances. And why should it? i thoroughly eojojed the Sui prise Party, much to niy surprise. The fua is fast and fmious, the singing far a'oova the average, and the show is on the go ths wli-ole time. Napier. is the next port of c-til. Tom Fiudaon says the B roughs are doing." great biz in lay theatre in Calcutta." We are i>ow looking forward to "The Sig'i of the X "

Tho Robert Inman Dinmaiic Company, which has t?ou«\ Wellington, the West Coast, avid OSimtchurcb, cunie up fioru the Ciiy of the Plain this morning, ami speak well of tho good time they had down there. They have gone on to Taranaki.

The St. John-Hayman Dramatic Company, of which Mrs Harry Mai shall its tho bright star, has been doing well down the golden West Coist. I quote from the Bulletin : " Mime-Uly speaking, Sydney if. now yi^ctioally dominated by Maoriland, or levgthy aojourDer<s in that province. Tbe two leading tenor*, the fashionable b.uitotie, and the two Lest-advettised instrumentalists and most prolific &ong writers are all recent M.L. exports, and tenth-rate vocalists and pianists arrive by nearly every steamer. This, of course, doesn't prove that tho Maorilander ia the best musician, but merely that he has htwps more pnsh and grit thau the languid local article."' From an advance copy M'Lich I have josfc received, I am able to tell you that Murk Twain, in his new bt-ok "More Tramps Abroad," opens his diary in Dunedin with these words : "The town justifies Michael D-ivitt's .praises. The pe^plft are Scotch. Tlioy stopped here on their* way from home So heaven, thinking they had arrived. Ths population is stated at 40,t'00 by Malcolm Ross, journalist ; btatcd by au M.l', at 60,000. A journalist cannot lie." A London messags of only a nr-nth ago to the 'Frisco Examiner .-jays that the admit ers of the lute Itobett Liouis Steve.nsou assembled in force at the Avenue Theatre to witness the first performance of " Admiral Guinea," an old play written by Stevenson and W. IS. Henley. An admirable prologue, especially written by Mr Henley, was recited by Elizabeth Robbing. The author*_s directions were minutely observed, thus sacrificing the acting to the literary qualities of the play, which, last are of tho finest. Sidney Valentine as Divid Pew, a truculent, blasphemous old mariner, who figured in "Treasure lslard" ; William M. Jliston as John Gaunt, the Admiral ; snd Cissy Loftus as tbe Admiral's daughter created a nautical atmosphere in a most admirable manner. Henry Irving, on his return from his English provincial tour, is to produce his sou's play, "Peter the Great."