The Lorgnettp

Observer, Volume XVI, Issue 952, 27 March 1897, Page 10

The Lorgnettp

magnificent tableaux; striking situations, and a superb performance of a most picturesque Shakespearian play, should mißs seeing 'Henry V.' It has been running thronghout the week, and so far has attracted veryfa^r audiences to the Opera House. ' Galled back ' is announced for Friday and Saturday nights.

Messrs John 'I. Philips and Co., mining engineers, have decided to open a branch office at Blind Bay, Great Barrier, and pnt their engineer, Mr F. H. Shepherd, C.E.M.1.M.E., in charge. We are assured that the public has been quick to perceive the manifold advantages of the • Star-Bowkett ' system. We are surprised that a system which has been so popular wherever tried should not before this have been adopted here. The rules of the society seem to be framed with every regard to the protection and .convenience .of the shareholders. The sys tern upon which the new society works is of course entirely distinct from that upon which the general ran of ' Building Societies ' so called lend money at a goodly rate of interest, and should be greatly appreciated by the borrower and investor whose operations have to be on a moderate scale.

(By Pendennis.)

Mb Geo. Rignold has surpassed all expectations and beaten all local records by his presentation of • Henry V.' on Saturday night. This mo3t martial and patriotic of all Shakespeare'B splendid series of historical plays has been produced on a Bcale of magnificence for which the community — large aB their anticipations may have been — were certainly not prepared. To begin with, the company which Mr Rignold has brought with him is exceptionally strong both in numbers and in personnel and individual talent. But over and beyond all that, the necessary equipment for the play — even to the silken drop-curtain, which is looped back gracefully from the sides upon the various scenes, thus dispensing altogether with the Blow and creaking windiDg curtain and hideous advertising Bcreen — has been translated in globo from Her Majesty's Theatre at Sydney, and we are given a perfect revelation of the splendour of realism with which they present their plays on the other side.

In short, ' Henry V.' is a spectacular pageant which leaves precious little to the imagination. The stirring scenes depicted for us by the immortal bard live again before the eye, which feasts upon them ; and the brilliant lines of the -poet, aided by the siater arts which are pressed into service by canning stage-craft, transport the playgoer into the very scenes which his genius sought to conjure up and body forth. Let those who would understand the wondrous realism of first-class theatrical tableau, take the trouble to witness * Henry V ,' and behold Mr Rignold's splendid representations of the English host in battle array before the breach in the walls of Harfleur, or as it is engaged in the battle of Agincourt, and the triumphal entry into London, with King Henry mounted on his white war charger. If they do, they will cheerfully subscribe to all I have said. There are no Ibbs than nineteen Bcenes presented, and each one is marked by the utmost completeness and fidelity.

The costumes are rich, striking, fl,nd historically accurate. Mr George Rignold makes a gallant and majestic Henry V. He has been playing the part for fully 25 years past, and it is no vain boast on his part to claim to be the greatest living exponent of the part. It suits his muscular, stalwart and well-knit frame, and he comports himself in it with perfect ease, grace and dignity. He looks every inch a king, and speaks his lines with remarkably fine elocutionary effect. The spirit stirring address to the soldiers as they prepare to. storm the breach at Harfleur is declaimed with thrilling force, and the beautifully-expressed monologue, on the night before the battle of Agincourt, npon the emptiness and hollowness of the ceremony that attends a king, was delivered with the nicest discrimination of its force of meaning. Mr Rignold was repeatedly cheered and frequently recalled. Miss Ada Guildf ord, in classical garb and with a golden trumpet. in her hand, sustained the part of Chorus, and spoke her lines with clear enunciation and just expression. Miss EmiJie Hughes played the part of the Princess Katherjne very prettily, and looked it charmingly. Miss R. Watts - Phillips acquitted herself excellently as Alice, and Miss Georgie Smithson. amply sustained her reputation for versatility by the very successful and independent portraitures she gave of Queen Isabel and Dame Quickly. The great majority of the male parts were highly effective. At the risk of being invidious, I would single out for special mention Mr F. Hawthorne's Fluellen, Mr H. Douglas's Pistol, Mr F. Harcourt's Bardolph, Mr F. Roundley'a Nym, Mr Stirling Whyte's Duke of Exeter, Mr J. W. Hannay's Archbishop of Canterbury, and Mr Walter Rivers' Constable of France. Miss Ethel Buckley, as Pistol's boyish servant, also appears to advantage. Mr Frank Engarde skilfully conducts an excellent orchestra, and there ie a specially engaged chorus of mala voices, which is heard to capital effect at various Btages in the progress of the play.

. ; Altogether, it ia a remarkably complete .^■aiid^higbly ornate stage representation,