THEATRE ROYAL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6122, 8 March 1898, Page 4

THEATRE ROYAL.

THE COTTON KING. In Sutton Vane's melodrama The Cotton King, Mr Bland Holt has just the play in which he delights, one which he himself can pervade in the character of a genial, happy-go-lucky, altogether absurd,yet altogether fascinating good genius, the friend of virtue and the determined and successful foe of vice, as personified in the villain. It is a play, too, which affords abundant opportunity for scenic display, and which abounds in "strong" situations, or rather sensations. Such a play, in the capable hands of Mr Bland Holt, is sure to prove a loadstone of sufficient power to attract a big audience, and that was what it did last night at the Theatre Royal, where the astute actor-manager and his able subordinates opened a " return season." There is no originality in the plot, which smacks of The, Silver King, but it is so constructed as to introduce with due effect- the " thrilling sensations/ and scenes of broad farce, which are the main attractions of the play. The most exciting of the sensations is that which marks the culminating point of the villain's wickedness when he endeavours to crush the heroine beneath the descending cage of an elevator. This was one of the best mechanical effects ever shown on the Chris tchurch stage, and its effect was enhanced by the fact that it occurs amid looms and other machinery, worked by steam, and on a stage brilliant with electric lights. The farce which is required to counteract the depressing effect of the woes of hero and heroine rises to its highest pitch at the picnic of certain mill "hands," a picnic with the realistic accessories of real bicycles, a horse and trap, real donkeys, one of which, by a display of real asinine obstinacy, fairly " brought down the house," and last, but not least, a goat cart, in which Bland drove " promis-cuous-like " about the stage. The woodland scene in which the picnic was held was one of the prettiest displays of Mr Brunton's art, and here if may be noted that in every act there were one or more truly charming sets. The opening scene, the . garden at Cottonhurst, with its wealth of flowers, was one of the most effective floral scenes ever witnessed here. Altogether the mounting of the piece was in full accord with the Bland Holt tradition, and no more need be said in its praise. The acting of Mr Holt and his company is as well known and appreciated as his mounting. Mra Bland Holt, as Kitty Marshall, a servant with aspirations after athleticism, helped Mr Holt in her usual lively style to maintain the fun of the place. Miss Elizabeth Watson played the heroine, Hetty Drayson, with force, but without exaggeration. Miss- Fitzmaurice Gill succeeded in thoroughly enlisting the sympathy of the audience in the somewhat lachrymose part of Elsie Kent, the deeply wronged victim of tho villain. Miss Flora Anstead was. effectively dignified as Mrs Drayson, the heroine's mother. Mr Bland Holt's representation of Benjamin Tupper, a dyer at the mil], who is ever on hand when virtue needs assistance or villainy has to be confounded, was one of those lively, breezy and thoroughly characteristic performances so familiar and so popular with the public. Mr TV. E. Baker played the hero, John Osborn, with manly power, and Mr John Cosgrove was natural as the villain, Richard Stockley. Mr E. C. Corlusse acted with power and pathos as old Silas Kent. Mr Charles Brown was amusing as a burlesque Salvationist, a r Stiggins in, uniform? and, a quite needless, character. ••.. Mr. •; j. Montgomery represented the financier, pe;FonSeca, very capably. Mr Albert Norman was admirable | as James Shillinglaw, a drunken engine- j driver, who is used, till the last act, by the villain as a tool. . In one scene, where the man overcomes an almost irresistible temptation to a foul ciime, his acting was very powerful. The other characters were \ capably represented. The orchestra, underMr Percy Kehoe, was very good. The Cotton King will be repeated to-night.