STAGE GOSSIP.

Otago Witness, Issue 3098, 30 July 1913, Page 60

STAGE GOSSIP.

Owing to the brevity of the Dominion tour, only seven nights can be allotted to “Puss in Boots.’’ Matineo performances will happen on Wednesday, August 6, and Saturday, August 9. Mr Frank Dix was specially engaged from Drury Lane, London, to produce the Australasian representation of “Puss in Boots.” Mr Dix is travelling with the pantomime company through New Zealand. The whole of the scenery apd effects for the Dunedin season of “Puss in Boots” arrived from Christchurch on Monday last, and a final scenic and lighting rehearsal will take place to-morrow under the supervision of Mr J. C. Whitfield. It is announced in Sydney that, owing to ill-health, Mr George Marlow is retiring from the firm which bears his name, and that in future the enterprise will be conducted by Mr George Willoughby. There will lie no variation in the nature of the plays produced. A quaint and novel item in "Puss in Bools” is a ballet entitled “The Plays of the Year,” in which groups of characters from half a score of plays appear in costume. In this way typical scenes from “Kismet,” “Our Miss Gibbs," “La Boheme,” “Bon Hur,” and “The Quaker Girl” are made to pass in rapid review. A new departure is announced by the George Marlow firm. The intention is to have three companies going the whole year round, each putting four months of the 13 in Sydney, and four months in Melbourne, the remaining four months being given up to Brisbane. Adelaide, West Australia, and New Zealand. New artists will bo imported from time to time. Australian talent, however, is not to be overlooked. It will be encouraged in every reasonable way. Almost from first to last the stage, it is said, is a blaze of colour and dazzling light, and features of “Puss in Boots” are the gorgeous drosses and magnificent scenery. There are 14 scenes, and amongst the. most effective are Mr W. E. Coleman’s piece of rural country in which the pantomime begins —a rustic village with old-fashioned gables, and the glow of sunrise in the eastern sky, his hayfield, said to be a delightful perspective of rising ground and river slopes and tall oaks; his “Ogre Gates,” a blackcloth of battlemented parapets and lofty turrets; and the brilliant hunting scene, with its comfortable bungalow and avenue of high trees. In spectacular effect perhaps the chief scene in the pantomime is “The Golden Orchard,” in which the masses of fruit on the trees are suddenly illumined by tiny electric lamps, and a ballet introduces a tableau of fairies in a shower of silver rain. A feature of “Puss in Boots” is the brilliant dancing by Mr Fred Leslie and Miss Ivy Schilling. They are seen in two particularly fine ballets—“ The Pierrot’s Wooing’ and “A Modern Diana.” The first takes place in a quaint dormitory setting, with yollow-garbed Pierrots tucked away in bed until wanted for the final figure of Mr Leslie’s and Miss Schilling’s vivacious acrobatic dancing and posturing; while the second has for its sotting a pre-Raphaelite bungalow, the two dancers in most impressive hunting costumes, with the aid of a ballet in keeping, executing measures' at once intricate and graceful.- One of the most humorous events in the pantomime is that when “Pip” Powell (King Grabbus) and Rupert Darrell (Cyrus Hanks) attempt to harness a highly-strung horse (Messrs Whitmore and Hart), and equally funny is the item “Kpop ' our foot on the soft, soft nodal." Fred taslie, “Pip” Powell, and Vernon Davidson take part. In the big bunch of specialty turns introduced in “Puss in Boots,” the stupendous pantomime production to be staged by the J. C. Williamson (Ltd.) management, that of the Gaudsmidts and their two handsome dogs, black Frencli poodles, rank as one of the cleverest and most entertaining. One animal especially is almost uncanny in his extraordinary intelligence. On las first appearance he comes down to the footlights carrying the placard “The Gaudsmidts and Me.” and having shown it to all portions of the house, takes bis place at the side of the two acrobats. When they do intricate tumbling- lie, it is said, does the same. When they roll on the ground ho is with them every time in all their antics, and finally, when they throw somersaults lie docs so too, cleanly and admirably, and as if he thoroughly enjoyed the fun for its own sake. “This dog alone,” said a Sydney paper, “would make the fortune of any pantomime.” It is said that he always modestly responds (o the thunders of applause which follow his performance. The Gaudsmidts themselves are under 35 years of age, and are twins. They have but an elementary knowledge of the English language. They gained a big advertisement in Berlin quite recently. After giving a performance at the Palace, the Kaiser presented them each with a diamond scarf pin, and they have also another memento in the shape of a portrait group, which includes the Kaiser and the Empress of Germany and themselves taken together.