OPERA HOUSE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LX, Issue 16892, 8 February 1917, Page 6

OPERA HOUSE.

"THE WAYBACKS."

There was an undoubted' savour of Australian bush life about the performance of "The Waybacks," as presented to a crowded audience at the Opera House last night. , Although the plot of the play is very slender, it abounds in humorous dialogues and situations, andrwhile it bears a strong resemblance to Steele Rudd's " Selection" stories, the humour is more spontaneous and less forced. The opening scenes are set m the bush back blocks, where "Dad" and " Mum" and the family give aviv id exemplification of life amongst the gums, wattles, prickly pears and waliabies. The escapades of the two daughters, Tilly and Phemie, the son Jahez, and the lover Charlie, are very funny. They all take a trip to Sydney, where are enacted some clever travesties upon the wiles amd ways of the politicians, the confidence iren, and other metropolitan types. There me some realistic bub gruesome character studies of backyard personalities which are very eieverly portrayed. Mr Wm. Stewart's characterisation of "Dad" is a long way ahead of anything of the Kind yefe seen h.ei-3, and Miss Julia Betterton-Glover made a typical 'Mum." Misses Lucy Adair and iilancho Blair as Tilly and Phemie, however, were the star performers of the production. Their posas and tableaux were cleverly though out, and splendid ly done. Mr Frank Shepherd, as Charlie Lyons, .Tilly's lover, kept the audience in peals of laughter with his bucolic love-making. Th 3 scenery, which was beautiful and essentialy Australian, was a feature of the production, and the accompanying music provided by the orchestra under Mr Reginald Hollow was much'above the ordinary Altogether the atmosphere of the- piny is typically Australian; it is entertaining and amusing from start to finish, and if the company pays Wangnnui' a return visit it is sure to be well patronised.