UNREHEARSED

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 28, 30 January 1929, Page 6

UNREHEARSED

WRmX IN THEATIIE. MONKEY AND "FROG." SYDNEY, January 8. "While the audience at yesterday's matinee at the Grand Opera House was enlgrossed li,n the pantjnnimie' "Dick Wilmington," there was a short and snappy drama behind the wings. Principal characters in it were Ivy Ivel, the "frog" contortionist, who is in the pantomime cast, and a large performing monkey. Ivy had finished her turn, and was chatting behind the wings with the ballet girls, who were waiting the signal to- go on to the stage, when the monkey—infuriated, it is said, because one of the girls refused to share an ice-cream with it —suddenly snapped the chain with which it was tied, and dived in among the score of ballet girls, who scattered in all directions.

Ivy Ivel, who is 12 years of age, did not see the monkey, however, until it pounced upon her. It clawed her severely about the legs, and had just bared its teeth for a bite, when an attendant struck the animal down. It was quickly captured, and chained Up.

The injured girl was taken tto the Sydney Hospital, where s'he was treated for extensive superficial lacerations, and afterwards she returned to the theatre to take her part 1 in the night's show. She has bean in the theatrical .profession since she was four years of age.