TROUBLES OF AN ACTOR.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 9485, 24 July 1902, Page 4

TROUBLES OF AN ACTOR.

The troubles of v play-actor were ventilated in the Magistrate's Court, Dunedin, the other day, before iMr Carew, S.M., when a stage manager sued two members of his cast for breach of contract, and claimed £5 damages in each instance. The case arose out of the melodrama "British Pluck," which had a brief career ill the Alhambra Theatre not long ago. The plaintiff, Mr Barrie Marschel, alleged that he had made agreements with the defendants to take certain parts, and that after' the first production he was practically left in the lurch. The excuses made were that they were too ill to appear, and plaintiff was compelled to "double" the parts. Owing to his suffering from a, sore foot at the time, which caused him to limp, the "doubling" process was fairly patent to the audience, and the realism of the play suffered in consequence. The evidence was of a contradictory nature, and in the absence of a written agreement his Worship found for the defendants in each case. A second point in the defence was the alleged illness of the defendants, and evidence was called to show that they, were in an unfit state to appear. One of them (who was to impersonate the "villain") said that he had to scream at an approaching train to such an extent on the opening night that he injured his voice, and practically lost it for the time being. In giving judgment, his Worship remarked that jf a doctor's certificate had

been procured and sent to the plaintiff in the first instance probably it would have saved the Court proceedings.