AMUSEMENTS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 9, 21 December 1911, Page 5

AMUSEMENTS.

HIS MAJESTY’S THEATRE

There was a very fair house at Bernard’s picture theatre last night, when the programme saw its last appearance. To-night an entire change will take place, when the great Christmas pantomime “Robinson Crusoe” will be screened for the first time in Taranaki. This picture is undoubtedly a very clear spectacular production, and the* dancing, scenic, and the big Harlequinade effects are of the best. A very large programme of star dramatic, comic, topical and scenic studies will also be shown, every one new and forming a large holiday show. HUDDERSFIELD BELLRINGERS’ BAND. There can be only one regret in our memory of the Huddersfield Bellringers—that there were not more people present at the Town Hall last night to hear one of the most pleasing entertainments it has ever been our good fortune to enjoy. Unfortunately bellringing is rn art with which we are not familiar. In, some of our Cathedral towns we have heard a peal of eight hells mutilated; last night, nine men manipulated a hundred hells, and they got from them a lilting tune, a soft melody 7, or a brisk staccato, with an ease and precision that fascinated the eye, and charmed the ear. They were at home equally in the classic or the ragtime air. Wrapped uy the music of the hells, “Lead, Kindly Light” took on a new significance; that worn-out melody Bluebell, when plaved by a single operator, sounded as it bad never done before. In “Les Cloches do Cornevillo” the bolls were really 7 at home, and the Huddersfield men showed their skill to perfection. From the bright march that introduced them to Stratford, to the fareiwell number of “Anld Lang Syne,” there was not a dull moment while the hells held sway. Miss Ella Airlie fulfilled the golden opinions she has won from critics all over the Dominion. She sat at the piano, simply and naturally, and in the sweetest of voices rattled through n succession of dainty humorous songs. Once the audience compelled her to give as many as four encores, and every 7 one was better than the first. Her manipulation of the xlopohone, also, was extremely 7 clever. Mr George Campbell is hilled as “the popular London humorist and volalist.” Ho received a very good hearing .from an audience that was in a good humour. Miss Bennet’s name was not included on the programme, as she has hut lately joined the company, in place of Mr Jas. Robson, the baritone and accompanist. Miss Bennet has a good voice, which was heard to advantage in her first number, “Springtime,” but was not so good in her later efforts, notably in “Absent.” Miss Bennet should certainly prove an aconisition to the company. The and ence, if not the largest, was of the most appreciative seen for many a day, and their spontaneous applause was a feature cf the evening.