THE STAGE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3526, 11 October 1921, Page 44

THE STAGE.

Contribution* from the Profession chronicling their movements and doings are invited. All communications to be addressed “Paaquin,” Otago Witness Office. PRINCESS THEATRE. Fuller Vaudeville. —Nightly. HIS MAJESTY'S THEATRE. English Pierrots.—October 11 to 15. Dunedin Operatic Society (“Dorothy”). November 26 to December 6. theatrical and musical NOTES.

BY

Pasquin

Monday, October 10. Miss Maggie Foster, the young violinist, will make a reappearance at tne -Princes Theatre this evening. The stop-overs are Mr Bern Stern, the Jewish comedian; Edgar Jfenyon, the remarkable New Zealand bov; Ling and Long, the Richardson brothers and Clierie, Marshall (contortionist), and .Bessie Slaughter. Ihe .English Pierrots vv.ll commence a return season at His Majesty’s Theatre on Tuesday night. Miss Mabelle Esquilant and Mr Hamilton Hodges are to sing the solos in the Grieg Concert, to be given in Wellington by the .Society of Musicians on Saturday, October 15. Mr F. J. Carter, who has just returned ‘‘•on? a visit to America, where he travelled to Eos Angelos, and was present at the big tight on the other side of the Continent., talks interestingly of the theatrical people r Among these were John Early, ol ' h ? R-arly and Laight Duo who pr'e-sent-ed On the Water Waggon” at the VEIL,. 1 A 1 A lnCes N a . fe ' A ; years 'hack ; Jessie At , Arthur Hahn, Mr and Mrs Well* Hn’n u ° a “c , Wel!s >- t,,e whistler Jimmy Hunn, Remu Selma and Lew James, Paul Stanhope,. and the Manchurians. Mr Carter v-M, P a° V l ld A d o, \- I,is vi U lo Los Angeles tvitli a letter ot introduction to Charles 1 haphn, who gave the New Zealander a enough ti- iTum a,ld Coll,d Mr W. S. Percy is making his first Ausand Go ” I,POara,lCe Sydnev “Theodore • Thieves visited the flat of Miss Vera cutters’ b'° a UT S ’ U 1 Jseach r °ad. Rushcutteis Bay, Sydney, and carried off clothing valued at about £IOO. TTtov missed a quantity of valuable jewellery. Muss Kosina Buck-man has accepted the cl lvlrl pa m in .. the opera “Arianne L-m r '" n ul La • Qcal ". Milan in -Mini of next year. This will be the first production of the opera in Italy, though it is well known in Parts. Mr Jack O’Sullivan was to leave for Bombay last, month to join Edgar Warwick as M ?iVm nasf< T his loail ' of 'lie East. Air O .Sullivan had just, returned to Melbourne from A! bury, New South Wales where he was head of D. O’Connor’s oompany with “Oh, Bov!” “The Lilac ■Domino, and ‘The Girl For the Boy” Jn tact, he played a part in “The Domino” as well.

‘• r r or (v f ' af interest of a performance of J t'llby in England recently was the appearance of Elizabeth Irving in the part created by her mother in 1895. When Dorothea Baird took the town by storm as trilby she was a young provincial actress, practically unknown to the London critics and public, though her Rosalind had already won the hearts of the devout in the Memorial Theatre at Stratford. For so young an actress (she is only 17) Miss Irving’s rendering of the part was a remarkable achievement, and made a great impression on the crowded house. sRe is said to have charm, beauty, and tenderness; and besides these personal qualities she has inherited from her parent's a native dramatic instinct which makes her art appear natural and simple. She looked and spoke and moved like a mid-Victorian Ophelia. Go.smo Charles Gordon-Lennox. actor and playwright, died recently at the Cottage Hospital, Marlow, in his 52nd year. He underwent an operation for internal trouble. Eldest son of Lord and Lady Alexander Gordon-Lennox, and grandson of the fifth Duke of Richmond, he was born in 1869. and took to the stage early in life. He made his first appearance iti London at the old Avenue Theatre in 1894, and, using the stage name of Cosmo Stuart, he had considerable success as a light comedy actor, in 1901 he started as a playwright under his own name, collaborating with Robert 1 lichens in “Becky Sharp.” Later be adapted a number of plays from the French, including “The Marriage of Kitty” in' 1903, and in 1904 “The Indecision ot Mr Kins bury," written for Charles Hawtroy. and “Ihe Freedom of Suzanne,” written tor Mario Tempest:, whom he had married in 1888. In 1906 he retired front acting, since when, up to the outbreak of the war. he bad been busy adapting, collaborating, and writing original farces and comedies. Ilis last play was “Sylvia’s Lovers," a light opera produced at the Ambassadors in December, 1919, for which he wrote the

“book.” ms According (o a recent London paper, theatre-land languishes in (he grip of an unprecedented slump, and on every hand one hears the same story of heavy losses and discouragement. The root of the matter is doubtless the general depression in trade which has resulted in a tightness of money all round. Even before the coal strike plunged us into difficult times ii general slump Iliad set in, says the writer, and the length of the coalfields dispute intensified it to a very serious extent. Thu amusement business is one of the most sensitive barometers to the slate of national prosperity or adversity, and a boom or a slump is almost immediately reflected in the box office. Plays that in ordinary times would have been sure of a successful run have recently been compelled to close down before they had even a chance to get “into their stride,” and theatrical production for the time being is a most hazardous form of enterprise. Ono tnanagei thus expresses

himself: "The fact is that generally spoak'"S everybody is rather hard up at present. Money is not spent, nearly so freely as it was on amusements or anythin::' else in the shaps of luxuries. It won't last, you know. \'e shall shake down well enough oven to the bad times, and the theatres will get their share again.” iVtLLS.NCT ON VV IN 0 WH!S pl- R «i. Br J'iMER Pas. October 7. Dear “ I’asqnin,” The " \’ice RogiL” were able to play only a short season nere of throe nights, and they showed to big business. Ino company returned to Australia yesterday. 'I he "Welcome Stranger” Company prodijced the .second string to its bow on Wednesday evening- when “Three Wise tools went up. it had a fine reception. Last Saturday evening the managers had trie pleasant expetience of refusing money ter admission. '! ho season ends on Monday. <>n Tuesday Miss Rosemary Rees and her comedy company will appear in "The Mollttse. ’ This talented lady has been down your way, so you know all about the production. , 1 here is pleasant reading in the news it’-ot Miss Resina Rutkiriau intends visiting •N ,vv Zealand next winter. She will be accompanied by her husband, Mr Maurice d Oise ley. and it is expected they will give concerts ihrougaout the Dominion. New Zealand gives fine support to foreign artists, now we will see how the people treat one of their own who has made a trunupn on the operatic and concert stage m i'.tigland and on the Continent. >St. Leon’s Circus is due here on the 18th.