AMUSEMENTS.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12480, 5 March 1909, Page 2

AMUSEMENTS.

MASKELYNE AND DEVANT'S MYSTERIES. The great London Company, Mas? kely.rie and Devant' Mysteries will open at the Theatre Royal to-night and will present the English 'programme known so well at the Egyptian and St. George's Halls. Mr Henry Hayward has ■ transported the entire world known combination of 26 illusionists, conjurers, jugglers, actors, and mqtresses from London, with all the elaborate trick furnishings and Mr Maskelyiie' cloely guarded inventions; This- means^; simplyj that the 'most representative of British entertainments, with a record of twelve thousand consecutive performances, will be set right, down in our town: Thus, "Will, the 'Witch, and the Watchman," is laid in the time 'of George 111, and is mounted in the -quaint ] Dresden china-like style of the times. The story is concerned with the imp.risonment of a sailor in a small village lock-up -placed; upon the ; village grean and guarded with ; watchmen. Mr Barclay Gammon is without doubt the. finest society entertainer who has ever visited, Australia. ,-His success in Sydney and Melbourne was intantaneous, and it was no secret that _an immense proportions of huge; audiences came time after time to listen to the- monologuist's remarkable piano playing and recitation. Mr.' Barclay Gammon introduces musical mono 7 logue entirely on new lines. His musical skits, imitations, of great pianists, and stories at the piano, are carried out with/., an ease which almost veils their difficulty, and turns a "tour do force" into the lightest,jolliest fun imaginable. ' M. ,Gintar,o, the,. Japanese juggler, who has been for • years- with Maskelyne' ' and T)evant, appears in a brilliant. act,- : which the : Sydney press towards thetclose of the season declared to be without parallel as far as Australia is conoerned. His balancing, quickness of eye, ancl the Strange Orientalism of his gorgeous appearance, constitutes him one of the company's stronget members. There remains to be mentioned Mr Owen Clark, M.1.M.C., dryly-humor-ous, quick as a snake, and amiably at ease always. Owen Clark is responsible for an exposition of conjuring in an up-to-date form, and introduces a remarkable trick of Devant's invention, in which Diogenes emerges from an. endless barrel lighted inside with electricity and- railed upon trestles. The box plan is at Jackson's.