THEATRICAL AND MUSICAL NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2883, 23 June 1909, Page 76

THEATRICAL AND MUSICAL NOTES.

• Br Pasqcin.

TUESDAY,' June 22, 1909. His Majesty's Theatre, which had for its occupant the members of Messrs JMc3 - nell and Gunn's Dramatic Co. is now in gloom and darkne33. This deplorable condition of affairs will remain until the arrival of -'"' The Merry Widow," and that army of

fun-makers, the Royal Comics, on Wednesday, June 30. As coming „ events really cast their shadows belore, we are in very truth brought face to face with the fact that tho mueh-talked-of and long-expected Merry Widow season is about to eventuate. The foregoing remarks are occasioned by the arrival in Dunedin, to herald the Widow who is merry, of Mr Bert Royle, the New Zealand representative of tha Williamson firm responsible for the worldfamed production. Mr Royle arrived a trifle " previous "—" — he. was no: expected until the middle of this week, — but it cannot take much to " boom " a comic opera which is being played the world over, and in half a dozen languages. Anyway, Mr Royle is welcome whenever ha conies. Bert Royle is one of the members of the profession who, in addition to being good to know, comes with something behind him. In this for1 unfits instance it is the Merry Widow, for which the majority of opera lovers will be more than tolerably thankful. I The seaeon of Meynell and Gunn's Dramatic Co. terminated at His Majesty's on Thursday evening, and on Friday the members of the company departed for Invercargill, where a two-nights' season was played. On Monday the members of the company took their final departure from New Zealand, lieaving by the Moa-na for Melbourne, via Hobart. It has bean decided by the Williamson management to open the Dunedin season with '' The Dairymaids," the second production being " The Merry Widow," and the final "Tha Girls of Gottenberg." -The. season, which extends over 12 nights, opans on Wednesday' n;xt, 30th inst. j All the way from Londora Palace comes to hand a. red-bn-yellow daybill -'starring" Miss Olive Lenton>— tihe "dainty" Olive of our acquaintance, well known in New Zealand and Australia.. The bill sets forth : Miss Olive Lenton, Australia's own artiste, in her musical seena, " Ha-rvest Time." It may be remembered that Mise Olive Lenton toured New Zealand under P. R. Dixs management. | Mr Walhei Bentley will make his reappearance on the Australian stage at the Theatre Royal, Adelaide on June 26 as , the Silver King- under the management of Mr J. C. Williamson. Mr Bontley has juafc returned from a tour tlmt mis extended through America, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The Silver King is , ono of the fa-.ouiite parts "n his extensive repertoire. Much copy is be in or made over ,in : alleged new drama, '" The Bank of Eng- J land," in Australia. Surely the critics j have not last sight of rhe fact that Max Goldberg's drama is several years old. | Personally, I saw it in this city quite five ! years ago. | Kyrle Bolew, the well-known actor, on the A B Cs of acting :— Affectation is the chain that binds the average actor to mediocrity. '"Stage tricks"' are fascinating weapons with which to fight for public aproval. but they are boomerangs j rather than Mauser rifles. An actor of inferior native talent will triumph above his cLsvcr colleague* if developed with more regard to art than to bluff. " Repressed emotion"' has become as banal a phrase as '-perfect lady." but it never- ! thelejs indicates the stage method of the future. It is well to regard the average audience as a giant intellect to which only the greatest thought and greatest (sincerity w ill aDpeal. The doctor can gain tenfold sympathy from his audience by struggling against- his tear? and against his weakness rather than by "fe°lan actoi convey to an audience the j least suggestion that he is listening to ( his own voice with the fondest appreciation. The actor should discriminate carefully between the two attitudes —conceit and dignity. Conceit is most destructne; dignity is most constructive. Max Maxwell, the iuveml<> Wd <">f BUM Holt's Company, drops me a line from Syd- j ney to the effect that the seven weeks and a-half t>a-on in Brisbane was a record, and that the Sydney season had opened big. Tho company will remain in the New South Wales capital for four months, during whir-h time "The Great R-a-f-ue," "Bondman," "Sins of Society," and "Mar-ri-cres of Ma-yfair" will be staged. Never while he lives will Mr Bert Gilbn 't lorvot hi.- experiences on hie last trin to New Zealand, when a wave came aboard t'io Wimmera on the way over, and nearly v.i-hed Mrs Gilbert o\erboard, beside 3 absolutely wrecking their cabin. He does not winf to be reminded of it either, but the F.ug- teem determined that the thing sl-ould remain fr-e&h in his memory. The o-hor day, while his fellow -mem hers of the Pantomime Company were farewelling-him at the Sydney Railway Station ajter soothing his regrets with a 6olid silver cigarette box. some of them sought to console him still further. "Never mind, Bert," : they said, "yon won't have to go to New j Zealand with us in the Wimmera." Mr Gilbert protested. "Don't remind me of • it. I never want to hear the name

again." Just then he looked round, and on the side of the sleeping ear- in which he .-was travelling to Melbourne was- the name, the "Wimmera." Alter seeing Miss Sargent and) Mr Bert Gilbert dance the Apa<&e Dance in "The King of Cadonia" one can unid-erstand why the measure lias been such a tremendous favourite in Paris, New York,' and-> London alike. Portraying as it does the passions of the French hcoliigam, his brutal caresse6 and ciuel tenderness, the dance is a story in pantomime, full of interest and intensify, and most cleverly revealing the varying moods' of the dancers — the man in a frenzy of feeling, the woman willingly, abandoning herself to his will. The phenomena of the obsession of man. about the actress is beyond accounting 1 for, exclaims a lady journalist ;n; n despair/ It is merely to be recognised ais a" fact; It is all the stranger, because actressea avo not in reality the flowers of their sex. Fa.r from it. With her wig off, her make-up washed off, and her everyday clothes substituted for the fluffy ruffles of the stage, the average actress is no whit betted* looking than the ordinarydomestic woman. She is even le£s interesting and companionable, .for the stage life ie the narrowest and most egotistical existence on earth, and it is the exception rather than the rule to find an actress whe either knows or cadres for- anything but the tittle-tattle of behind the scenes. Nevertheless, the actress has only to smile and crook her little finger, a.nd the sens of Adam get up and . follow her - where she lists. This would not be so curious if only ' the gilded jouth and the gay old "dogs" about town, .were allured by the painted faces of the stage, but sober men, staid, hard-headed, practical business men, are not* immune against that glamour. They also fall before it. A; man may be a dieacon in the church, anoT a pillar of society. He ma.y be ac domestic as the house-cat, and apparently contented with the kind/ of wife and children that j Providence has vouchsafed' him, when there comes along some perky little actres3, who ■stives him a glance out of the corner of her eye and a smile over her shoulder, and, voila, the man is dona for. A correspondent of a Sydney paper recalls some of tfte conjurers who have visited this naa-t, of the world.- To cut out "some of the really ancient history and start; quoting from t.he seventies: — Tht» next, conjuring visitor was Robert Heller, whose performance created' a eensation throughout Australasia. As a. majfician Heller was r-p-alk great, a-nd past finding out: as a pianist he was brilliant: a.nd ac a comedian and humorist he was fairly amusing. Louis Hazelmayer happened around in 1872. He became a hip: favourite, And m«'de much money with hig ma?ic. Then followed a witch- woman or lady roagioian, Cora. <!e La.mond, who cam« from America j.n 1872. At, the latter enrt of ■ 1R74 Dr Sv-lvestar. "Tire Fakir o£ Volu," apoeared. Tolmaqul struck Australia in 1875. TCellsu-' Jiad>e a tour of thpse narte in 1876. in conjunction with Ling Look, Yamadeva. and Cunaird. the "Royal Illusionists." "Chevalier" Thorn, a very clpvpi* performer. s>ir>peared in 1879. TT<» wa.- followed by P"iiMp Anderson in, iBSI. In 1839 came Robert Jensen and Peron— liorti clever at the art of making that which '■■m't appear a.s t.hat which is. T.n 18^2 Carl Herf^ visiied v* for the first tim-p. and in 1R99 cpitip Dant«. wfor» was a distent relaHoo of "The WizaivK of the NortK" T?ertri>m. who ohancecl: this \i-iv i^ndo— R-ol^er+. Brontrb'- ir.3t!iMr«nrent In 19m. Thur-lon in }P/>6. Lor<"iz lon +,tie RicV-iv<ls' circuit) in lflO7. and MaskpIvnc ond Devant in 1908 Tir'nar n« "» to ih^ date of our present visitor, the alleged' Chinaman.