STAGELAND

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 205, 3 October 1914, Page 2

STAGELAND

Another footlight hero has gone into the beer-dispensing business —Walter Baker, hero of a hundred fights (in Bland Holt melodrama) has taken over the; license of a Sydnejt hotel.

Gaston Mervale, well known in New Zealand and Australia, as a very capable actor," was last reported' as playing leading roles for the" Yitigrapli Motion 'l'ieture Company.

The illusionists, Le Roy, Talma, and Bosco, were to' have commenced their New Zealand v tour at Auckland last Monday night, but "do not'Seehi to have put ill an appearance yet.

Carrie Moore is once again on the Fuller-Brennan vaudeville circuit. The Plantagenet "Big-wood management was far from being successful.

The Dunedin "Star" says there is a probability of Fuller-Brennan vaudeville reviving in the Scotch city within four weeks, in which case there is also a likelihood of Opera Housepatrons being given some enlivenment about the same time. . ■

Barry Lupino has been re-engaged by 3. G. Williamson,' Ltd., /or another 12 months, and will be the chief comedian in the "Cinderella" pantomime to be produced at Christmas;

After Shaw's "Pygmalion" had ertd-

Ed its run in London, Sir Herbert Tree eaid it had been a great success, and it *was quite unexhausted. '' I should )iavc liked," he went on, {i to continue with it, v but comforted myself with , the reflection that Mr Bernard Shaw has always been a revivalist, and that, no doubt, the play will be seen again, just, as have other plays qf liis. Its success was due, I think, to an element which was, perhaps, unsuspected by the author. It is one of the eternal stories —King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid, if you will. Mr Shaw, you see, lias been a romanticist in spite of himself. . . .' As to the 'word,' I have mot received a complaint from any member of the public. . . The English language has long been laboring for its birth . And " there it is."

Mr Bert Boyle, representative for j. C. Williamson, Ltd., has been advised that the farewell tour of Julius Knight Mpill commence at Cliristchurch on

November 7, and conclude in Welling-

ton at Christmas time. One of the firm '-s opera companies (probably the Gilbert and Sullivan Company) will fill the Christmas dates at Auckland, and will •pen in Wellington towards the end of January.

It was originally intended that the Dominion tour of the ' Julius Knight Company would open in Wellington on October* 1. Owing to the excitement of the war, the management deemed it advisable to postpone the tour for a few weeks.

"Kisxnet" is to be added to the history of famous plays which have been adapted for kinematograph purposes. A limited liability company has been iloated in London to produce and handle the production, the filming of ; which will take place' in the neighbourhood of Golders' Green.

The cast of "The Sign of the Cross," now being revived at Melbourne Theatre Boyal, includes:—Julius Knight as Marcus, James Hughes as Nero, Frank Harvey as Tigellinus, Herbert Bentley as Xiicinius, Eardley Turner as Glabrio, Martin Lewis as Viturius, Irene Browne as Berenice, Nellie Calvin as Dacia, Kmma Temple as Poppea, Dorothy Gumming as Autaria, Bertha Ballenger as Bteplianus, and Lizette Parkes* as Mercia.

It is reported that the famous Italian tragedienne Eleanora Duse will never again appear' upon the stage. Though she is stiil comparatively young (55), ehe is said to be suffering from a disease that makes her practically helpless. Duse is esteemed possibly the greatest

actress of the flay, and was the source of much of D'Annunzio's inspiration. His greatest dramas were written for Duse's interpretation.

"I don't think I would ever be happly in "villainous roles." (Julius Knight confessed to ail interviewer). '' To feel that the audience is against one is to realise that the proper spirit of encouragement which means so much to an artist is wanting. Under such circumstances, an / actor who is possessed of a sensitive temperament cannot do himself or the part justice./' Either Julius is talking nonsense with wink aside, or he is just talking nonsense. Acco.rdin'g to such classics as Diderat and "Talma, an actor with such a fine sensitiveness as that, is no actor.

< 'Kevidon " - in - the " Bulletin":— H. B. Irving, in his zeal for criminology studies for' stage purposes, gets hold of some gruesome things. His latest, acquisition is a one-act play, called "The Mask.!' It deals. witji a country girl whose husband has had his features mutilated in an explosion. He always wears- a mask. The wife, who has taken an aversion to him, invites a former lover to the house. While they are talking the masked and mxttilated husband returns, and, a struggle ensuing, lie is knocked down and apparently killed. The guilty pair scheme that the victor, shall dispose of the boily, and then, by the aid of the mask, assume the position of the dead man. But, while the woman is absent from the room, the husband revives and kills his rival. He throws the dead man down ai old well. When he returns masked the girl thinks. their, plan has worked. But in a few minutes,when tKe husband proceeds to the bedroom, to which, in a feigned voice,.he had bidden her retire some moments before, the shrieks of horror which are heard tell the audience she has discovered her mistake. These howls of misery and lamentation finish the story. It isn't-a nice story, .when all the points are considered.

Said that the famous composer of light opera music, Franz Lehar, has joined the Hungarian colours, an (I is emulating that other Minstrel Boy..

Suffragettes interrupted the performance of '' Kismet" at the Globe Theatre, London, recently. Having chained themselves to their seats, they attempted to speak, but were stopped," and as quickly as possible, got out of the building. Later in the evening Mr Oscar Asche, after speaking the line, "O Hadj, art tliou come to rest," added, " chained like a senseless woman."

Madge Titheradgei - who appeared with iLewis Wallerv in Australia, lias been engaged by Charles Frohman "as his leading woman at the Prince of Wales Theatre, London.

It is now said that Messrs Linlev and Stevenson are not going to abandon the New Zealand tour of their pantomime company, but have rearranged their dates, commencing in Wellington in November.

Mile. Dolores opened at the Melbourne Town Hall last "Saturday, after an absence of three years from the /Victorian capital. She devoted the proceeds from her first of four le< i to the Belgian Belief Fund.

"Mips Hook of Holland" hnjs been successfully revived by the Napier Amateur Operatic Society. Miss E. Rae was cast for the-leading part, and Mr'P. J. Dodds was Bandmaster A r uyt. Mr Roy Si>ackman conducted.

Mr Edmund Janres Payne, of Mimms, Westheath Avenue, Gold er's,Green, London, the well-known Gaiety comedian, who died on July 1 at the early age of 49, left estate of the gross value of £21,657. 10/8, of which . the net personality has been sworn at £21,095 14/6.

Miss Marie Lohr lias been selected for the part of Lady Babbie in Mr Charles Frohman's revival of. "The Little Minister," ~ which is to .follow "The Land of Promise" at the Duke of York's Theatre, London. Mr H. B.

Irving was to play Wilfred Denver in the revival of 1 ' The Silver King'' at the Strand. Sir Herbert Tree was announced for the parts of Mieawber and Peggotty in l the cast of "David Copperfield, .' ' at His Majesty's, on September 5.

Considerable interest was aroused with the statement that the famous Mrs Kendal was about to make a reappearance on the stage in one of Seymour Hicks' productions, but it, is now learned thg.t the actor-manager . has failed in his endeavour to induce her tp return. He had intended to. introduce her in the English version of. the play, '' La Belle Aventure.''

The mad race for something new, which lately prompted the Russian composer, Scriabine, to call perfumes and colours to the aid of his symphonic music,, has resulted in Paris in an equally odd experiment by the opera coniftoser Isidore de Lara, to unite speech and operatic song with moving pictures.-- This "poetic and- musical fantasy" is called "Don Juan," and at the performance'it was preceded by the playing of Massenet's "Don Juan," the recitation of Baudelaire's '' Don Juan,'' and the singing of airs from Mozart's opera of the same name. t

A •writ<*r in the Birmingham "Post" boldly asserts that in England to-day the proportion of men at an afternoon .performance is insignificant, and that they are invariably outnumbered by women in the evening. In a word, the audience is an assembly of women and the men they take with them. Commercial success comes to playwrights only so far as they satisfy the requirements of the feminine-mihded crowd, especially in regard to theme and central personage. " The ease may be summarised simply: The theatre ignores the interests of men; the men ignore the theatre: and so it goes on in ever-widening circles. Then the theatre managers com-, plain that men will not go to the theatre. Milliners might as well complain that men will not buy their 'latest Paris models' at an end-of-season sale."

Most theatrical businesses in Melbourne have already been seriously injured by . the effects of the war, and various managements have had to resort to strict economy, and in some cases to reorganisation, to keep artists in employment. In a few cases companies have had to be disbanded, and engagements cancelled, but with the majority of managements an attempt is being made, by strictest economy and slight paring where it caji best be done, to keep all artists and employees in work. Managements are prepared to draw considerably on reserve funds, • and are hopeful of carrying on until the, worst of the financial difficulties are over.

The Irish tenor, John McCormack, has been making big money in America. It is said that ,he gave 47 concerts in three months, and that the gross receipts for them were £33,000. McCormack was in a train accident during the tour, between Ithaca and New York, but sang the same night to 7000 people in Paterson, New Jersey, with his arm in a sling. »

In the theatrical as in other professions it is rare for two members of. a family tt)- attain equal celebrity. Amongst notable exceptions are Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and his brother, Max Beerbohm, critic and author; H. B, Irving and his late brother, Laurence Irving; Georgette Le Blanc Maeterlinck and her brother, Maurice Le Blanc, the author of the play, "Arsene Lupina'.' and, of course, the great Terry family. With these exceptions, and ,a few others, the rule enunciated holds true. Forbes-Robertson's brother plays comparatively small parts; John Wilkes Booth always suffered under the inevitable comparison with his brother Edwin; Tyrone Power's brother is "small fry." "Not so good as his father (or his brother) " is the inevitable penalty of being related to a great artist.

"Under Cover," a play of exciting incident, said t« be up td the standard of ' ? Within the Law,'' has been acquired by the Williamson management

for Australia. "Under Cover" ran six months in Boston, where it was first produced. Six months in Boston for a play is a hitherto unheard-of feat.

The stage will never lack practical jokers (says London "Public Opinion"). There is a play now running in which »a prisoner is obliged to read aloud :l letter which the gaoler brings on. It occurred to the latter that it would be a good joke to hand up a blank sheet of paper, and for the moment the prisoner, who had never taken the precaution to commit the letter to memory, was at a loss. But only for a moment! Then Ire said: "Gaoler, I must make an avowal to you. Brought up by parents of low estate, I am unable to read. I beg that you will .have the goodness to acquaint me with the contents of the letter." The gaoler was nearly hoist with his own petard, but not quite. He replied: "Willingly, but I must first go in search of my spectacles." With the spectacles he brought the letter, and so saved a situation that was fast becoming strained.

Mr George Tyler, an American theatrical manager of the firm of Leiblers, "of New York, has secured the exclusive services "for a long term of years, both for the United States and England, of Miss Phyllis Terry-Neilson, daughter of :Mr and Mrs Fred -Terry. Mr Tyler explained that he had been anxious to secure Miss Terry's services since he attended a matinee of "Twelfth Night" at His Majesty's, London, four years before, and saw her make her first Appearance as an unknown aetress, whose -name was on the programme as "Phyllida Terson." He added "The contract, gives me the absolute control for a long- period of years of this young lady's, artistic career. JSliakespeare, to be commercially successful, must be either played by a star cast or by someone who is able' to send over the footlights the atmosphere which the author intended. Miss Terry, in my opinion, embodies that, atmosphere. I sincerely believe that she means to be to the English-speaking stage what Bernhardt is to the French stage."