Local and General.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 165, 21 November 1868, Page 2

Local and General.

The Panama Mail. — The Southern portion of this mail will be brought on by the Lord Ashley, which would probably leave Wellington about two p.m. to-day. CoNSTITDTIONAL KbFOKM ASSOCIATION. A meeting of the promoters of this association was held yesterday evening at White's Hotel. A provisional committee for Christchurch was appointed, and steps were taken for the appointment of district committees throughout the province. Thkatre Rotal. — Mr Whitworth has every reason to be satisfied at the measure of success which attended the production of the " Flying Jib, or the Derby Day," which he has dramatised from the well-known work of fiction entitled, " The book with the iron clasps." This work is eminently calculated to display the powers of a dramatic author. The great difficulty which the dramatist has to contend against is that of compressing his labours within legitimate limits, relieving the plot from some of its original intricacy, and so arranging the action of the drama as to give it that effect upon which it must so materially depend for public approval. If Mr Whitworth has not been altogether successful so far as brevity goes, he has at all events succeeded in presenting the plot with every clearness aud intelligibility. But, speaking in a strictly critical sense, some of the scenes could well afford to undergo considerable curtailment; for at present the dialogue is in some places so protracted that it becomes dull, wearisome, uninteresting, and quite unnecessary to the main action of the piece. At the same time, it would be unfair to Mr Whitworth, and at variance with just criticism if we were only to point out what we consider to be the defects of the piece, and omit mentioning its redeeming features. On the whole, we are inclined to admit that these are decidedly in the ascendant. A vast deal depends upon the scene on Epsom Downs, where Flying Jib is planted a winner by the honest old trainer Dick Britton. This was capitally managed; the scenery representing the course, the grand stand, the booths, &c, was well painted; and to give greater reality to the scene, some policemen, negro minstrels, and the like were introduced, besides the horse Trump (lent to the management for the occasion), with Dick Britton on his back. The audience applauded the picture most vociferously, and demanded the curtain to be raised to the scene a second time. Mr Whitworth appeared Very successfully as the trainer; there was only one scene in which we did not admire him — that jin which Lorraine acquaints him with the guilt of his, son, and leaves him to adopt one of two alternatives, either to see his son hanged, or the favourite " nobbled." Here there was a capital opportunity for the actor, but Mr Whitworth's overwhelming grief and despair were too much forced, and too artistic to appear natural. But as the trainer, whose sole mind is bent on victory, Mr Whitworth performed with life-like reality, and was greeted by loud applause from all parts of the house — applause which was all the more flattering, because it was well deserved. Mr Roberts, too, as Solomons, one of a class to be met with on almost every racecourse — a tout, and the lowest, most degraded type of a book-maker — a man who hesitates at nothing while he is able to participate in the " nobbling " of a favourite so as to take up the odds against the field with safety — was pourtrayed by Mr Roberts in a manner which did credit to himself and full justice to the author. So also did Mr Wilmot play the part of Joe very humorously ; and the " victim of over-training," as Joe took frequent occasion to designate himself, to the amusement of all who heard him, was in his turn loudly applauded. Of Mr Joyce's acting as Lorraine much is to be said in the way of praise, and very little that i 3 condemnatory. Captain Steel was hardly sustained by Mr Keogh according to the author's description. The other characters, though of trifling importance, were pretty well played. By the production of this piece Mr Whitworth has shewn himself to be a dramatic author of no mean ability, and although we cannot speak of the •' Flying Jib " in terms of unqualified commendation, we can say this much — that it is possessed of considerable and peculiar merit. All parts of the house were almost crowded, and two or three large audiences may be expected if reliance is to be placed on the unmeasured applause which was bestowed on the piece last evening.