AMUSEMENTS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 305, 23 December 1914, Page 7

AMUSEMENTS.

HIS MAJESTY’S THEATRE.

“ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.”

His Majesty’s Theatre has been successful in securing a splendid Xmas attraction, being the wonderful biograph play of history, entitled “Antony and Cleopatra.” This picture is the greatest ever produced by the Cine’s Company of Rome. It is a play with wonderful power and teaching, beautiful in colors and superb acting. Among the great scenes are: “The Death of Eros,” “Ai’ound the Temple of Isis,” “The Temple of Jewels,” and “The Desert of Syria.” The story is based xipon Shakespeare’s “Antony and' Cleopatra,” but it has an additional strength by the inclusion of the story “Agar,” which has been taken from Pietro Cossas’ story of “Cleopatra.” One of the strongest scenes is where Agar, who, to Cleopatra’s mind has been over-appreciative of Antony's kindness, and who, at the risk of her life, saves Antony from assassination by conspirators, is thrown by the jealous queen into the river to be devoured by crocodiles. The play is beautifully staged, portraying luxury and magnificense, and it is stated it has cost double the amount that it took to produce “Quo Yadis.” The drosses and headgear of the richest quality are chronologically correct, and are marvels of the dressmaker’s art, while the architecture is of a similar high standard. The picture is in five parts. Mr Will Diamond will recite “The Day,” a famous poem, and special music will be rendered.

THE AXEMEN’S CARNIVAL. Eltham’s gala days this year are Boxing Day and the following Monday, and 28th December, when the fourteenth annual grand championship carnival will bo held on Tauraata Park, which is within five minutes’ walk of the railway station. The total prize-money offered exceeds £375, and there are first prizes of £9O, £45, and so on. Great interest centres in the tug-of-war, for which liberal prize money is offered, and the competition promises to be keen. Inland Taranaki flocks each year to the carnival, and New Plymouth and Hawera districts also are always well x’epresentcd, for the sport is keen j clean, and exciting. There is quite the nucleus of a holiday “fair” in the carnival, which now draws many of the best of the travelling side-shows. There are excellent luncheon arrangements, and, besides this, there is the.lovely stretch of native bush along the banks of the Waingongoro stream, providing room for hundreds of picnic parties.