CAMBRIDGE AMATEUR DRAMATIC SOCIETY

Waikato Times, Volume XV, Issue 1325, 25 December 1880, Page 2

CAMBRIDGE AMATEUR DRAMATIC SOCIETY

The members of this society gave a performance on Thursday, in the Public Hall in aid of their own funds. The evening being extremly wet, in consequence the attendance was small, a circumstance calculated to have a very discouraging effect on amateur?. The Cambridge Band attended, and played selection inside the Hall until the commencement of- the performance, and afterwards formed the orchestra inside. The first part of the programme consisted of the farce "Do you know me'now." The characters were taken by Messrs Keesing, Hughs, Reynolds, Peek and Jones. The selection was not a happy one, and to make matters worse one or two of the ;performers were not exactly letter perfect. Indeed, it may be said, that the whoto burden of the farce fell upon Mr Keesing, who, a» Mr Nogo Damps, the very much out-at-elbows. commercial traveller, was remarkably good. It is however beyond the power of any one man to make a play go smoothly. Such a result can only be attained by the earnest efforts of all ths persons engaged. After Mr. Keesing, Mr. Jones deserves a word of commendation for his waiter. The other characters were not raised above mediocrity. But if the audience w ere dissatisfied with '• Do you know me now " as they had every reason to be the really admirable way in which the pretty Comedietta "The L ; ttle Sentinel" was put upon, the boards made full amends. Nothing so genuinely good has ever been presented by Cambridge Amateurs before, and it miiy be questioned whether even in some of the larger towns of the Colony anything very much better could be produced. The plot is a very simple one ; a young widow, with strong propensities for flirting, is engaged to be married to a sailor, and during the latter' b absence, he charges his sister to "keep off the butterflies," a task which with much difficulty and some little danger to her own happiness she successfully accomplishes. The parts of the Widow Hawthorne and Mibs May were sustained by two young lady amateurs who, on this occasion, made their debut. Their acting bore evidences of careful training, and rebounds very much to the credit of the talented stage manager, Mr Keesing, who himself made a great hit in the role of an officer in the "Dwagoons," one of the "butterflies," the other being an elderly gentleman fairly represented by Mr Peek. Mr Saundera played the part of " Sim," a country bumpkin in love with " May" to perfection, and fairly brought down the house by his eccentricities. It is a pity that so excellent a performance should have met with so little encouragement, but as the smallness of the attendance is to be laid to the account of the weather, it is to be hoped that the Society will reproduce "The Little Sentinel" for the benefit of those who were kept away on Thursday evening.