THE LORGNETTE

Observer, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2, 21 September 1912, Page 6

THE LORGNETTE

[By Prompter.]

ONE of the most notable turns which the Brennan-Fuller management have yet put on at the Opera House is that presented by Mabel and Malfe on this week's programme. This clever pair give an exhibition of eccentric dancing and tumbling, which is quite novel. The dancing of the lady is very dainty, and the man's tumbling and grotesquerie is both difiicult and amusing. Frank Yorke is, naturally, still a great favourite, and his extensive repertoire of quaint songs and gags given with all the vigorous humour of his personality resulted in his having to appear again and again. Miss Stella Reid is a bright serio and her style has evidently captivated Opera House audiences, for they are very reluctant to let her get off the stage. The contralto of Miss Elsie Knowles is also much appreciated, and the dancing and singing of the dainty Cliffe Quartette is another excellent item on the programme. Indeed, all the artists earn the applause given them, and there are a good large bunch with plenty of material to work on this week, and Leonard Nelson, Wilson and Pritchard, Bella Perman, Muriel Eskbank, Doris Baker, Bert Corrie, Roy Rene and Ted Tutty, all of them high in the favour of Opera House patrons, make enjoyment of the good and hearty sort, while the fun of Frank Yorke in the concluding farce makes an effective climax of laughter. * * *

" From the bottom of the Sea," *s the title of the principal picture exhibited at the Queen's Continuous Pictures this week, and a very interesting and well arranged picture it is. The skeleton of the story is an American submarine, an enquiring and unscrupulous foreigner who contrives to damage the machinery and so causes the submarine to sink while on a cruise, a heroic youth who is in love with the captain's daughter and who, as a chance of saving the others from suffocation, permits himself to be shot through the torpedo tube, succeeds, brings help and leaves the picture with the wedding anticipated. Some scenes in Italy make a picture of great beauty and a very charming little story is told in " The Greatest Thing in the World," in which is shown the regenerating influence of a young child over a hard and crabbed old man. Of the comic pictures the best are "Neighbours," and " Zingoto Drives an Engine."

An enthralling drama which concerns itself with the work of the railroad is " The Girl with the Lantern/ and this may be seen at the commodious and comfortable King's Theatre. There is plenty of excitement in this film, which shows how a girl's cool courage averts a great railway disaster in the nick of time. Two other dramas excellent in conception and performance are a Wild West picture play, "Paying the ,Price," and " A Mexican Romance," both of which have plenty of stirring scenes in their composition. A little natural history is given in " Same Studies of Acquatic Life," and life in Eastern cities is splendidly depicted by another film. " A Trip to Spalato " is a very pleasant journey to take even, per medium of the cinematograph, there are plenty of picturesque scenes on the way. The Pathe Gazette gives the news of the month, as far as prominent European happenings are concerned, in picture form, and greatly adds to the variety of the programme, while the necessary leaven of humour is provided by a bunch of amusing comedies and farces.

The Lyric Theatre shows a very vivid glimpse of the turmoil and horror of the French Eevolution in the,, picture called "In the Reign of Terror." In this picture love and tragedy suspicion and violence, the brutality of the mob, and prideful courage of hero and heroine go to make up a drama full of emotion and intensity. A drama set on the canals of Holland and finely coloured is " The Lock," a story full of feeling and quiet force. "A tale of the supernatural which, probably

owes a good deal of its conception to Pol's " Oval Portrait," is " The portrait of Lady Anne. " Marabout Shooting in Africa" is an interesting film which gives a good idea of North African scenery and sport, while "Borneo Pottery Making" shows the crude appliances but skilful handiwork of the natives of that Dutch colony. Pictures of topical interest, of notable happenings in England and the Continent, are shown in the " Gaumont Graphic," and humour is plenteously provided, the best of the being " Love Unconquerable," and "An Unlucky Mirror."

* This week's programme at the King George Continuous Pictures, Durhamstreet should attract large audiences to the different sessions, since the entertainment is exceptionally good. A fine racing drama is " The Handicap," and a fine drama in which the ministrations of a child is the leading motif is " When Memory Calls." A drama of the woolly West with plenty of movement and excitement is "Mexican Bill," while ." The New Superintendent" is one of those first-rate stories of modern life which ximerican film producers seem to have a monopoly of. "The Australian Gazette" gives topical news from the " other side" in pictures, " Climbing tHe Eax" is an excellent scenic, and " Sada, the Tightrope walker," is a good vaudeville turn. There are four comic films, all of guaranteed to provoke laughter, but possibly the best two are "In 'the Clutches of a Vapour Bath" and "Tommy at the Dentist's." This programme will be continued until Monday, when an. entirely new one will be put on, the star film being a finely coloured historical drama, "The Seige of Calais."

The brilliant comedy, " A Woman of No Importance," which will be staged at Auckland during the forthcoming Plimmer-Denniston season, is responsible for the birth of the oft quoted proverbs, such as the famous definition of fox hunting as the " unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable, ,, and of women as " sphinxes without secrets" ; the epigrams, "the youth, of America is its oldest tradition," "nothing succeeds like excess," and many others. A vein of keen irony pervades the whole play like the savour of acid in an exotic iruit. In fact, it is Wilde at his very best. Mr Titheradge as the cynical Lord Illingworth will be presented in one of his very greatest achievements.

Noticed in the interview with Oscar Asche, which appeared in the "Herald," that that large and modest man said that "new methods of production have made Shakespeare pay handsomely," and that "it was no use nowadays to stage Shakespeare's plays without careful attention to all the stage appurtenances, which must be as accurately in the period and as elaborate as in any. modern play/.' Precisely. People these years have "hot the imagination of the Elizabethans which enabled them to conceive a forest when a placard hung on the green baize background announced "a forest." The playgoer now requires his defective imagination to be aided by realistic scenery and the consequence is that not the play but the setting has come to be considered the thing and producers are more inclined to descant upon the elaborate mounting of their plays rather than the essential dramatic value of the play. Possibly this managerial preference for stuff that gives the best opportunities for stage effect is the reason why we get so few plays of any real dramatic quality.

As Oscar Asche says, even Shakespeare has to be ewamped in scenery before he can be popular. But Oscar also says, contradictorily, that 'the whole trend of theatrical lighting nowadays is to drop glare and glitter and provide mystery." Which, judging particularly from what is given us in. this Dominion is not true, for glare and glitter are still paramount effects, and the only instance this writer knows of in which an attempt was made to have the setting an unobtrusive and decorative accessory to the play was a failure — this -was v Gordon Craig s scheme for the Irish Literary Theatre productions. He also staged according to his theories a play for his mother, Ellen Terry, which actors and clitics declared to be anything but a success. Doubtless it was a success as art, but the actors were not thrown into prominence by the lighting, and that was annoying to the performers and beyond the understanding of the audience. Glitter glare will reign long in popular favour before the quieter and more decorative setting is appreciated.