THEATRICAL GOSSIP.

Thames Star, Volume IX, Issue 3058, 3 December 1878, Page 3

THEATRICAL GOSSIP.

A new gymnast of extraordinary courage and ingenuity has appeared at the , Oxford Musio-hall in the person of Leona Dare, described romantically enough as "The Queen of the .Antilles." Among . the wonderful achievements with which this performer is credited in an ascent in a baloori having Suspended to it a trapeze, "upon which she executed a series of intrii date etolutions at a aisianceof balf-a-mile Worn the earth. There is of course no Sjossibility of her attempting any such eat as that in the scene of her present operations; yet even here her proceedings are so'marVellous as to make the spectator! distrust the evidence of their own viii<3i». She is a person of great stature iind J)/oportionate size, a fact which, 'mates her operations all the more reliiarkable;;"a l)ght(. elastic figure being usually deemed essential to a " trapezist.' It is by means of a pulley and a rope, one fsnd.gf whichjhe holds between her teeth, that i^ona, Dare hoists herself to the trapweT Arrived there she doei things that exceed belief. Hanging at full •length, and sometimes by one leg only, from the bar of the apparatus with her feet towards the ceiling and her head towards the floor, she holds between her teeth another trapeze, on which a male athlete swings wildly to and fro, Pre- ' sently her colleague discards the machine §nd4hen,< while be seems floating horizontally in -the air, as though in the act of swimming, she sends him spinning round and round like a teetotum, she meantime holding in her mouth a hook fastened to the man's belt. These and geTeral similar performances are but few of many feats of what may be termed " dental athletism." It may be said truly of' botTi gymnasts that they escape by •^he skin of (their teeth." It is, indeed, sensationalism in excelsis. Derogatory to the dignity of womanhood, and appealing to the most morbid, crating after excitement, this, exhibition deserves the-sternest reprobation. It is received with : the. rapturous enthusiasm by. a public which ha* rejected cockfighting as disgraceful and haa learned to regard pugilism with horror. ... --„.? v-> ■'■:';. ■; ■ :■:' • The Lord Chamberlain, " after a careful and anxious consiideration," has come to the conclusion that he" cannot recommend Mr, Arthur,, Matthison's new .play, "A Faisie, Step,"for license. ;He admits thit th^ "piece, •• in respect of-its ultimate purposf, is without doubt profoundly moral,"* but "in its application to English liffA'e fears it will give touch offence/ and that "our public and their critical gaides would fasten on the situations, which are extremely strong, and would exclaim, that the moral ef the piece was only fit to be taught throngh the Divorce Cdttrt.'' 'jHtf adds, "Of Adultery we hftte hidsomd what too much of late in the ?Brni J'6f adaptations from the French," and then goes on,to say, "It is, I assure yotf^tfo^ without reluctance and regret that I find myself obliged in the ?esponr siDie^exercise of a public duty to reject a piece, :,irhjch h*» so much merit in it as TQWoV^rliop of sthis fine and powerful play." "A, False Step" was to have been, ,Broduced at the Court Theatre. Mr Mttthison has some thought of publi»hing«tke interdicted play. "