HIS MAJESTY'S THEATRE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2924, 30 March 1910, Page 70

HIS MAJESTY'S THEATRE.

Past experience has shown that the holiday influ-c of visitors during Easter seriously overtaxes ths seating capacity of the Princess and Alharubra Theatres, and in order to anticipate all requirements Messrs Fuller and Sons opened a short bioscope season at His Majesty's on Friday afternoon and evening, and on both occasions the house was packed. The pictures included in this programme are quite distinct from any previously shown here, and pro/ide an entirely separate entertainment. The enterprise of the bioscope film artist is well exemplified in the admirable series depicting the terrible floods in Paris. Views. were shown of boats moored to lamp-posts in the principal boulevards, and Parisians could be seen at various improvised ferries stepping from boats on to long wooden platforms, whence they could get access to less flooded portions of the city. The Champs Elysee—the pride of Parisians—was shown to be inundated over a v-ery large area, and the swiftness of the current ; n some streets afforded an idea of the damage wrought by this devastating flood, and other views displayed the resourcefulness of the police and military authorities in minimising as far as possible the in-mediate inconvenience caused by the inundation. Arother notable series depicts the life of Moses, being an adaptation from the Bible by the Rev Madison C. Peters of the main incidents in the life of the patriarch. The story is familiar, to most people, and its pictorial representation in this seriss is well conceived and admirably portrayed. The staging and acting in this series is very fine indeed,'and the dismay amongst the women on learning that all* first-born infants are to be slain is almost too realistic to be pleasant. From,a student's point of view the series is educative in a high degree, and the costumes are historically correct. A fine series of travel pictures took the audience for a trip through Hungary, and showed the quaint manners of the high-spirited Magyars, amidst their quaint, romantic surroundings. Russia was also laid under tribute for a picturesque set of views, some scenes amongst the shipping at Odessa being particularly good. ." Egypt, from Sunrise to Sunset" made another highly instructive and enioyable series, and proved incidentally that the . clear, dry atmosphere of that country enables the artist to obtain sharply-defined views, abounding in startling contrasts, such as are rarely obtainable elsewhere. A view of the river Nile at sunrise, with the " dahabiehs," or Nile boats, flitting past in the shimmering haze, of the early dawn, is indescribably beautiful, and the views of the Sphinx and great Pyramids, and other typical scenes, combine to make up a very fine set of pictures. / An incident in the American War of Independence provides the theme for a dramatic series, in which the Hessian mercenaries figure prominently.. They pursue a young American dispatch-bearer to the home of his aged parents, rind behave with such brutality after murdering the son that the old father arouses the neighbourhood, and deals out-summary retribution to the marauders. Some of the remaining pictures included dramatic episodes in domestic life, and provided the human element which the average audience appreciates highly. Those shown on Imday were conspicuous for thsir. naturalness and generalgood taste. Several humorous films provide 1 plenty of amusement, and the entertainment concluded with depicting the tribulations of a young man on his -weddingday in consequence of the attentions, cu mischievous busybodies. At times the audience fairly shrieked with laughter, and, taken altogether, the entertainment was a most successful one. Ic will be repeated this evening. •