THE CRITIC

Observer, Volume 1, Issue 2, 25 September 1880, Page 14

THE CRITIC

The comedy of "Charity," produced at the Theatre on Friday and Saturday last, to poor houses, is one of the Aveakest pieces Gilbert has ■written. The author of " Pinafore" can never be absolutely dull, but in " Charity" he comes Very near boring one. The features of this revival Avere the Fitzpartington of Lingard, the Smailey of Mr. Overton, and abovo all the Ruth Tred gett of Miss Raymond. We have been accustomed to see the last named lady in colourless elderly-female parts, ancl Avere therefore quite unprepared for her poAverful representation of the unfortunate outcast and tramp. A better piece of acting of the kind has not been Avitnessed in Auckland for many a long day. Mrs. Lingard Avas scarcely at home as Mrs. Van Brugh. Comedy and not emotional parts are evidently her forte. In the third act, she Avorked tremendously hard and acted very cleverly, but the true ring of pathos Avas missing. NotAvithstanding this, many of those present Avere much touched. Tavo young ladies sitting behind me Avept copiously, ancl several women in the stalls AA'ere observed mopping their eyes. Mr. Lingard's Fitzpartington is a capital piece of loav comedy. I like it better than anything I haA^e seen him do during the present season. Mr. Overton's Smailey Avas also A.1., and so Avas Mr. Craig's Smailey, junior. The tAvo played Avell into each other's hands and created much amusement. Of the other performers, Avith the exception of Miss Adelle avlio was as usual charming, it is unnecessary to speak. They Avere, to put it mildly, mediocre.

Hearing "Dr. Clyde" would be played for several nights, I postponed going until Wednesday, AAdien to my horror the bill Avas changed, and " Charity" substituted. I am, therefore, unable to revieAv the performance. People tell me, hoAvever, it Avas not good for much. Tonight Lingard takes a benefit in his famious sketches ; to-morroAV " Our Boys" Avill be performed for the last time this season ; and on Monday " Pinafore" is to be produced for a feAV night. The Parisian Diorama is at Gisborne. During their Christmas season here, the Lingards will produce "Les Cloches de Corneville." Luscombe Searell is a believer in spiritualism. George Chaplin is in NeAv York, sloAvly gaining strength. The popularity of the "Pirates of Penzance " is already on the wane in London. EdAvin BroAvne Avas to open at the Theatre Eoyal, Melbourne, on the 11th, in " Good as Gold." Bandmann ancl Miss Beaudet are called in 'Frisco the great B and the little B. Johnny Hall and his Avif c go to Adelaide in November. Charley Weightman has been engaged to look after matters in connection with the coming circus. Lingard's benefit this (Friday) evening. Uoll up, all of you. There is a big bill. To-morroAV (Saturday) " Our Boys " for the last time this season. J.iR. Greville opens the Queen's Theatre, Sydney, this week, with a big company iinder the management of Henry Vincent. " It rains alike on the just and the unjust, "because," says an American humorist, "the unjust have generally stolen the just's umbrella." The night before the Duke's Theatre Avas burnt " New Babylon " had been performed there for the 410 th time. OAven Westford, as Dr. Athely in "Charity," was a sort of ecclesiastical " Barney" awfully funny, but, well— not quite the colonial bishop. A grand complimentary benefit to Mrs. Charles Florence took place at Dunedin on the 3rd inst. __iss Adelaide Bowring (Mrs. J. B. Steele) assisted. During the Christmas season the Lingard's -will produce some of Robertson's comedies, probably "Ours " and " School." R. A. Proctor, the astronomer, says his researches have led him to the belief that there is no future state. Cole's Circus comes by the City of Sydney, which is the only steamer of the line large enough to carry the mammoth affair. Louise Pomeroy's first appearance in Australia wiU be in "As Tou Like It." Let us hope the audience will like it. The chief attraction Avith Avhich Emilie Melville proposes to travel the colonies is M. Coedes' opera bouffe " The Weathercock " (La Girouette) first produced at the Fantaisies Parisiennes in Brussels. After playing the "Wreck of the Pinafore " in Melbourne, Mrs. Lingard goes home to England for a season. She will not, however, be accompanied by Mr. Lingard who prefers a sojourn in his native States. It is impossible to help feeling sorry for poor old Steele. He worked like a horse during the bad times preceding the Lingard's advent, and instead of making money, lost it. The Lingards go straight to Dunedin from [here and work up the coast back again. They will play a month at the southern capital and a fortnight each at Christchurch and Wellington. After being released from the Inebriate Asylum, Joe Emmett and his family set sail for England. They were, however, to return to New York at the end Of August. According to reports, Mr. Arthur Sullivan is now engaged in the composition of another comic opera, to be produced in America next season. The libretto ■will be by Mr. Gilbert. The £1000 bequeathed to Edward Compton, by Miss Neilson, will come in very handy. Old Compton left his family miserably badly off . The son has been the sole support of his mother for ever so long. The contract price for bringing Cole's circus from San Francisco to Auckland by the ' City of Sydney' is £3,300. This shows what a tremendous affair it must be. The superb lithogiaphs announcing the advent of Cole's circus were drawn by Matt Morgan, the artist, who made the London " Tomahawk " so successful for a time. When the Lingards go South, Haygarth ancl and O'Brien intend getting up a benefit for themselves. O'Brien has been studying lago, in "Othello," and thinks he'll make rather a splash in the part. Kowalski, the pianiste, Avho Avrote a small morceau for the "Muse," is hilled in Melbourne as «, the brilliant, the poetic, the romantic ! Can bathos go much further ?

When the mail steamer left Frisco, telegrams had been received ta the effect that Sothern was much better, and would probably be able to resume work in a month or two. Alf Hayman and an " Evening Luminaiy " reporter were seen in a cab together. That night there was a headed par in the journal named about Louise Porneroy. Rear Admiral Carr Glyn, R.N., C.8., C.S.I-, to whom Adelaide Neilson has left her fortune, is the second son of Lord Wolverton. He was born in 1829, and is consequently 51 years of age. His first wife, by whom he had four children, died in 1870. Alfred Cellier, the composer of the "Sultan of Mocha," has quarrelled with Arthur Sullivan and swears he wrote three of the principal airs in " Pinafore." Sullivan has not answered the charge, which looks fishy. Miss Clara Stephenson soon broke AAdth the company she joined in Dunedin, and her short season was, writes our correspondent, a failure. Miss Stephenson's " forte " is burlesque, and no burlesques were produced. The drama " The Last of the Kelly's" Avas played in Dunedin several nights. It is, I hear, destitute of merit. There is no romance in it, no moral, no adornment of the history of the desperadoes and (most fatal of all faults !) it would not draw. Miss Pomeroy Avas in the dress circle at the Theatre, on Monday evening. She is a blonde beauty, and bears a somewhat extraordinary likeness to the late Miss Neilson. Her voice, which sounded a trifle shrill, appeared to be her weakest point. The " Bulletin " wants to knoAv Avhy some of the Australian variety shows don't try New Zealand. The answer is, because they are perfectly well aware that that sort of thing, unless particularly good won't wash here. Last Aveek, I asked " Who is Maiy J. Jack?,' Since then, I have been told that Miss Firnrin was not Mrs. Jack at aU. That old " rip " Jack, it appears, deserted his own wife, who is a charming woman, and ran off with Annie Firinin. The former has now taken action against him and got a divorce. John Bennett is not, after all, going to pilot Ketten through New Zealand. He has associated himself with Sam Howard, and they have taken the Opera House, Sydney, where they intend to produce Hamlet with Bandmann, Miss Beaudett, Hoskins, Myra Kemble and a strong company. "Pinafore" Avill be produced at the theatre on Monday, with Lingard as the Admiral, Mrs. Lingard as Josephine, Campbell as Corcoran, Westford. as Deadeye, Dawson a3 Ralph Rackstraw, Craig as the Bosun, Miss Adelle as Hebe, and Miss Horan as Little Buttercup. If "Dr. Clyde" had been a first-rate play, instead of a very poor one, its fate would have been precisely the same. Neither paper gave a review of the initial performance, and no attempt was made to push it. Sometimes Mr. De Lias seems utterly destitute of enterprise. Mr. de Lias Avas almost the only person Avho I made anything out of the Steele-Haygarth dramatic season. Besides getting £25 a week for the use of the house, he received 20 per cent, on the gross receipts. This seems to have been for guaranteeing Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds, with other members of the Company who came from Sydney, their salaries. Louise Pomeroy, to Avhom the "Star" devoted a headed paragraph on moil day, is an American actress of no particular repute. She will probably be as big a "frost" as Jane Coombes, unless Alf. Hayman finds some way of working the oracle. Of course Alf. declares that, now Neilson is dead, " the Pomeroy" is the only legitimate actress on the stage. What about Madge Robertson, Ellen Terry, Marie Litton, Amy Roselle, Scott-Siddons, and a score of others ? Itisan extraordinary fact that AvhencA-er a neAv actress visits these colonies, her agent invariably announces that the tour will be very short, as Miss So-and-So has to " appear in London early next season." It was the case with Jane Coombs, with the Jacks, and with half-a-dozen others ; and now Alf. Hayman tells the same tale about " the Pomeroy." I notice, too, one of the very swellest London houses is generally selected as the scene of the metropolitan debut. Unfortunately something invariably occurs to prevent it coming off. My Dunedin correspondent, describing the redoubtable Lottie, says :_ " She may be described as a smart woman, though she is not to be compared for ability or elocution with Mrs. Britton. Her pronunciation is defective and she has a habit of saying things which are objectionable though not patently immoral. Her subjects so far have been " The Forbidden Fruit" and " The Devil," and it is her intention to lecture shortly on a subject which is not considered a suitable topic of conversation in polite society. So Mrs. Boucicault (Agnes Robertson) is coming on a visit to this end of the world. She must be a good age, for I see she played voider Charles Kean's management at the Princesses' in 1851. The lady is (or rather was) an actress of considerable ability. She was the original Eily O'Connor, in the "Colleen Bawn," and Soe, in the " Octoroon." Her representations of Jeannie Deans, in the " Heart of Midlothian," and Jessie, in the " Relief of Lucknow," have also been much praised. I fear, however, Mrs. Boucicault's best days are over; besides her pieces have beon done to death. W. S. Gilbert's "Charity," played at the Theatre Royal, on Friday and Saturday last, was the fourth of the series of plays by the same author, produced under the Buckstone management. The night of the first performance (January 3rd, 1874), will be long remembered. For some time the audience was quiet and evidently felt bored, but as the comedy progressed Miss Madge Robertson's acting, as Mrs. Van Brugh, carried all before it. The " Daily Telegraph " of the following morning says " the lady's acting made a dull English audience leap to its feet and wave hats and handkerchiefs. Such a scene has seldom if ever before been witnessed at the Haymarket !" There is iioav a " common-Avealth" at the Princess Theatre, Dunedin, playing for expenses. Messrs. Herbert, Wilkinson, Lane and Misses Lizzie Morgan and Lawrence ore the leading members of the company, regarding which, I fear, the term commonwealth is in part a misnomer. Mr. Wilkinson has greatly improved and is now one of the best low-come-dians in the colony ; the Jothers are just what they are known to be by theatre-goers. On Saturday week, the company produced a hash of " Pinafore," under the title " Pinebehind," introducing " Pinafore" airs and burlesquing some of its characters. There was a fair house the first night, but whether the performance draws or not, it is likely to drag the producers into a law-suit, unless their poverty protects them. "Iced air" sounds delightfully refreshing when alllmnianity is panting with the fervid heat of summer. This term has been applied to the novel and elaborate system of ventilation which has been lately introduced into the Madison Sqtxare Theatre, New York. By means of two immense fan wheels in tho cellar the air in the Theatre is changed completely in five or six minutes. This supply of air is drawn from above the building, and is purified by passing through a " dust-catcher " made of cheese-cloth. It is then cooled by passing over a huge vault filled with ice, and distributed by a complicated process to all ports of the house. The impure and heated air is removed by various ingenious devices. It is believed that no more effective method of cooling large buildings has ever been put into practical operation. We shall have Miss Lottie Wilmot here shortly. She has already reached Dunedin. This you know is the lady who lectures on " Why Chiniquy left the Church of Rome." She has lately been the successful plaintiff in an action for libel against the Sydney " Town and Country Journal," in which, on the 16th August last, appeared a statement insinuating that Madame and the Pastor had been playing a nice little game, the Pastor first visiting a place and starting a quarrel between Protestants and Catholics, netting a nice little sum, and then clearing out, leaving the field for Madame, who, appearing in the same platform, abuses Chiniqtiy right and left, the two afterwards meeting again and sharing the spoil. For this slander the defendants were cast in damages £150, but the Sydney papers have since waged vigorous onslaught against the summing up of Mr. Justice Windeyer, who heard the case, all of which, if it serves no other purpose, is an excellent advertisement for the fair lecturer.