STAGELAND

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 229, 31 October 1914, Page 13

STAGELAND

BOOKINGS. In Season—"Bunty Pulls the Strings." NovemDer 7 to 21—Julius Knight Co November 28 to December 3—"HumptyDumpty'-' "Pantomime. I have received a letter from the Brennan-Fuller management, stating that the firm is going to re-open in the Opera House on November 7, but only for six nights. The vaudeville team which is going to provide tlie entertainment consists of: —The Leslie Holmes Costume Comedy Company, the Three Homaz (aerial gymnasts), Rosa Loader (the slavey at the piano), White and Grey (musical comedy artists), Great Westin (impersonator), Brown and Sorlie (negro comedians), and Troutt and Voiles (in their water carnival). To-night, Graham Moffat and his company of Scottish players make their first bow to a Christchurch audience, and the season should be successful, . judging from the present bookings. '' Bunty Pulls the Strings'' is a comedy i of Lowland manners, set in the period i of the " 'sixties,'' the period of erino- 1 lines and mittens, and its humour is .entirely dependent on its revelation of Scottish character. „ Truth is sometimes, stranger than fiction. It is reported that Graham Moffat, the actor-author, received a clipping recently^pontaining the account of a wedding which took place at Richmond, England, under the conditions that characterise the wedding of Eelen Dunlop and.Thomas Biggar in ''Bunty Pulls the Strings." The bridegroom was discovered by the lady he, had loved forty years after his disappearance. He was a widower with a family. They were reconciled and married. It will be remembered that the Australian dancers, Fred Leslie, and Ivy Schilling, went to London to try their fortunes and were engaged for the Empire Theatre. They are - good dancers, but London has been looking upon the Russian dancers for a long while, so that it is not remarkable that the London papers should give their turn faint praise. Their riojtices are only moderately complimentary. Says the latest "Bulletin" (October 22): —"Dancer. Maud Allan and the three Cherniavskys will occupy Sydney Royal for a week", beginning on Saturday. Maud, of the bunch draperies, lias another engagement elsewhere with William Anderson; but that is a daytime show, and is being staged at the law courts.'' Victor Prince is playing "Australia First," a "revusic.al" comedy—book by Souter, the '' Bulletin'' artist, music by' Wynne Jones and Emanuel Aarons '

—in the New South Wales country towns. Victor is billed as the nationa comedian. One of the characters in th< cast is Peter Persnurkus, P.C., that vol uminous contributor to the " Sun' moving-picture column. Results of patriotic matinees by the combined theatrical managers:—Syd ney, £2150; Melbourne, £1850; Brisbane £800; Adelaide, £240; and Wellington £340. Mine. Seliumann-Heink, safely return" ed from Europe, tells to the New York "Musical Courier" a story of how Ger man-army officials came on to the stage at Bayreuth (where she was singing at the festival) during a performance of '' Parsifal,'' and notified those prin-

cipals, orchestral players, and choristers jvho were eligible for war service, that they had to start for the front immedi-, ately. On the same steamer with Mme. 8 was Johanna Gadski, and both singers appeared at a concert on hoard for the benefit of the Red Cross. According to Mr Alf Linle.y, who returned from jSydney this week, the pantomime '' Huinpty-Dumpty,'' which he and Stephenson will introduce to Wellington early next month, will easily surpass their previous effort '' Little 80-Peep,'' good as tha,t . was.

y The transformation we ones depicting il "Dreamland" will be a feature of the e pantomime, concluding with a patriotic 1- tableau, '' The Call of the Empire.'' ' J ".Returned empties" is how managers of country touring companies in e New South Wales describe actors and I- actresses sent back to Sydney through failing to make good. Bert Le Blanc, comedian in "The . Grafters," has gone into vaudeville in [" Australia on the Fuller-Brennan circuit, ic Cyril Mackay, beloved of tjie patrons e of melodrama, has now a part more I worthy of his capabilities in the t Anglo-Eastern drama, "Mr Wu." From "The Chorus Girl," now being played in Australia. A scene in the girl's dressing-room: — '' They 've pictured me twice in the 'Telegraph' this season." "Don't you like it?" "N-o-o; but" —after a pause—"anything to help the management along." Versatility is so rare on the v stage nowadays (says the "Theatre") that E. W. Morrison can claim to be the only actor possessing the quality at the present time- in Australia. Apart from his peculiarly soft, purring voice, which is most distinctive, Mr Morrison is totally different in every play, not only in the rendering of his part, but also in appearance. .He is an artist in make-up, and consequently is the only, member of "The Yellow Ticket" Company who succeeds in looking anything but what he is in real life. "Sixty Years-a Queen," the 7000 ft motion picture of notable incidents in/ the life and reign of. the late Queen Victoria, for which there was such keen competition amongst film buyers in London, will be presented throughout New • Zealand at an early date. The picture is practically a bovrilised history of the Empire for 64 years. i "Record Room," in the "Bulletin": 1 -—T. E. Tilton, who plays Wu's majordomo in "Mr Wu" at Melbourne Princess 's, is a young Maorilander; with a good deal of Australian experience. In I M.L. he acted professionally and coachJ ed the gentle amateur. He also committed several plays of his own. . With • Ethel Buckley's touring company, in ; New South Wales and Queensland, he ' did good work as a rapid producer;, and ■ with Beaumont Smith, in Sydney, he has shown himself a capable stage manager. Tilton recently married Miss .Pearl Hellmrich, whose dad's name, as Mayor, is inscribed on the Paddirigfcon 1 (Sydney) Town Hall. Mrs Tilton, who has had experience in both drama and vaudeville, plays the English flapper, Hilda Gregory, in the Melbourne production of " Wu."