Plays and Players
THE large promise of entertainment which the Ada Delroy Company held out to Auckland lovers of ‘ variety ’ was fulfilled to the satisfaction of crowded houses on Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday last; and so far as one can judge there is no reason why the popularity of the Company should wane. The show is a particularly bright combination of amusements and in its lightest moods is characterised by a modesty that should commend it to every one. The skirt dancing by Miss Delroy is very charming indeed, the skilful manner in which the young lady manipulates her wide silken draperies being very remarkable indeed. Under the coloured lights and against the black hangings of the stage her graceful moving figure is a vision of loveliness. Mr Teddy Ford provokes shrieks of laughter by his facial contortions, and Mr Bell was just as happy in his ‘ Senegambiau Oddities.’ The singing is good and the farcial pieces better still, and the whole performance winds up with an exhibition of so-called thought-reading, which, whether a clever bit of trickery, or as some may prefer to believe, the result of clairvoyancy, is very interesting and very bewildering. The Company continues to occupy the Opera House all this week. THE GREENWOODS. An enormous audience greeted the appearance of the Greenwood Family in the Auckland City Hall on Easter Monday evening. Long before the curtain rose the building was packed from floor to ceiling, and scores were unable to obtain admission. This was the more remarkable when it is considered that there were three large rival entertainments going on at the same time. The programuie opened with ‘ Barbara,’ in which Miss Maribel Greenwood took the title role ; Miss Agatha the part of Lille, Mr J. Linden that of Cecil, and Mr Walter Steins that of Finnicum. The piece was cleverly played, and at its conclusion Miss Maribel gave the grand seen a from Wallace’s 1 Lurline.’ The crowning success of the evening, however, was the burlesque of ‘ Romeo and Juliet,' a beautiful and extremely amusing extravaganza. The chief characters in the cast were Miss Agatha Green wood, Romeo , Miss Roberta Greenwood, Mercutio ; Miss Nora Greenwood, Juliet; Mr Robin Hay, Capulet; MissF. Maxwell, Paris; Mr A. Carrington, Tybalt; Mr Walter Steins, the apothecary ; Mr G. Linden, Friar Laurence ; Miss M. Brierly, the fat boy ; Miss Eagleson, Lady Capulet • and Mr J. Collins, the nurse. The young ladies' whether as boya or girls, looked particularly charming in their elaborate costumes, and played their respective parts very gracefully. Mr Collins as the nurse was a pronounced success. Etelka Gerster, the noted prima donna, has jusi opened a school for singing in Berlin.
Olga Nethersole will, next spring in London, marry a certain Dr. Oliver of the English East India service. Three versions of Marie Corelli’s novel, * The Sorrows of Satan,’ have been put on the stage in England, and none seems to have been received with any especial favour. Hermann Sudermann is writing two new plays. One, called * The Three Heron Feathers,’ has its scene laid in his native country. East Prussia. The other is a Biblical drama called ‘Johannes.* Emille Moreau, who is said to have written more ot * Mme. Sans Gene ’ than Victorien Sardou did, has written a play in .which Jane Harding will appear at the Porte St. Martin in Paris. It is called ’ The Accursed Mountain.’ Arthur Pinero’s new play will be called ‘ The Princess and the Butterfly or the Fantastics. ’ It will be given by George Alexander at the St. James Theatre when he is ready for a new play. It is described as a comedy by the author. ‘John Gabriel Borkman,* Ibsen’s latest play, fell flat at the first performance in Christiania, the stage management, which Ibsen had taken into his own hands, being particularly bad. This fact is explained by the statement that the author is too silent and too polite to manage the actresses. Probably no young actor of these times labours under more disadvantages than Joseph Holland. He is as bald, and he is as deaf as the axiomatic doorpost. During rehearsals he learns by counting numerals exactly how long each actor requires to finish a speech. Thus, by counting fifty at one time, ten at another, one hundred at a third, and so on, Mr Holland knows exactly when his own turn for speaking arrives. The actor has carried his system of numerals to such perfection that he has never been known to speak too soon or too late in the play. ‘ What will happen next ?’ is the question which the theatrical managers and the theatre-going public of Paris are asking just now. And no wonder, for verily some strange sights have been seen on the French stage of late. Psychological plays are no longer a novelty, and M. Sardou has shown how the theatre can be made an effective instrument in the work of popularising the doctrines of spiritualism. Now, however, the theatre is to undergo a still greater metamorphosis, or, rather, one theatre is to be used for a purpose which is strikingly novel and which smacks of the old days when mystery and miracle plays were in fashion. A Christian theatre is to be established in Paris. This is the news in the French theatrical world. It will be erected in the faubourg Poissonierre, and will be known as the Theatre Corneille, this name being chosen because Corneille was not only a great dramatist but also a devout Christian, as can be seen from the many pious utterances in his plays, as well in ‘ The Cid ’ as in ‘ Polyeucte.’ The theatre will be directed bv Mme. Nancy-Vernet, and will have as patrons the following well-known persons :—Urbain Goheir, editor of Le Soleil; De la Tourrasse, editor of La trance Nouvelle ; De Merolles, president of the Society of Christian Publicists ; Albert Monnoit, secretary of the Libre Parole newspaper; Nemours Godre, editor of La Vcritc ; Edmond Turquet, formerly Under Secretary of State, and Charles Vincent, editor of La Gazette de France. The theatre will open with Rostron's play entitled • Saint Genest,’ and this will be followed by several new plays, all of a strictly moral and religious tendency. Carefully selected plays will also be performed from the works of Corneille, Racine and’ Alfred de Vigny. The news that this novel theatre is to be established has given rise to a lively discussion in the French press. Thus La Libre Parole says :—‘ The Catholics of France will at last have a theatre in which they will run no risk of hearing their faith insulted or of seeing the professors and ministers of that faith turned into ridicule.’ Le Gaulois looks at the matter from a practical point and simply asks, ‘ Will this new theatre succeed ?’ Then in reply it makes some suggestions. ‘ The people,’ it says, * may flock to see a play on spiritualism, but that is no proof of their willingness to support a Christian theatre. Still, they might like to see such religious plays as their forefathers delighted in, especially plays based on the picturesque traditions of religion. Again,
the “ Passion ” of Oberammergau would be quite as successful in Paris as it is in Bavaria. M. Bouchor played for some time in a mystery of this kind in a small Parisian theatre, and for a long time drew immense crowds. ’ But then Le Gaulois naturally points out that if plays of this kind once become thoroughly popular any manager would be glad to produce them, and, consequently, there would be no logical reason for the existence of an exclusively Christian theatre. If one can see a Christian play at any theatre, why go out of one’s way in order to see a similar play at a Christian theatre ? ‘ And we have to-day,’ says Le Gaulois, in conclusion, * a theatre in which we can see the most sublime and touching sights of Christian art. This theatre is the Church. There the neoplc can see the King of Kings and the Court of Heaven, with all its pomps and all its ceremony. Golden copes, silken garments, flowers, marbles and lights are there to gladden the eyes and soothe the heart, and while the incense floats toward the many coloured windows, on which are pictured images of the Holy Family and of the saints, the ears are charmed by sounds of music, whose sole aim is to fill the soul with the highest conceptions of love and duty.’ Time alone can tell whether this Christian theatre will be a success or not. That the utmost will be done to make it a success is certain. Mr Geach, agent for Carl Hertz, was fined 5s and costs in the Christchurch S.M. Court for allowing the Theatre Royal to be overcrowded. Hertz continues to do splendid business in the South.
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Bibliographic details
New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVIII, Issue XVII, 24 April 1897, Page 513
Word Count
1,470Plays and Players New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVIII, Issue XVII, 24 April 1897, Page 513
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Acknowledgements
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