JOSEPH of GANAAN

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXI, Issue XII, 17 September 1898, Page 370

JOSEPH of GANAAN

A BIBLICAL PLAY.

The present season of Mr Alfred Woods and his coin|>any, now playing at the Opera lloiu»e, Auckland, with g'Ft'Xit success, is of more than ordinary interest to the theatre-going pul>lic of New Zealand. liuring Mr Woods* season he has already intro* d lived to us many notable plays which hare earned more than the average criticism bestowed upon dramatic pns ductions. In Miss Aland Williamson's original play, ‘The Gates of Bomlage. founded ii|M>n Hall Caine’s world famous l»ook. he has presented to us undoubtedly one of the finest plays of the time, a drama which in literary merit and dramatic construction rises to a very high pinnacle of merit. In the forthcoming production of the Rev. George Walter’s great Biblical drama he ventures to bring before us the theatre-going public a play that has not only created a sensation in Australia, but become famous throughout the English theatrical world, from the fact that after its successful pro* duet ion in Australia it was shut out <>f the English market, because its plot was founded upon the Bible story. I'he authorship of this modern drama sets one thinking of the very few

instances in which gentlemen with a similar prefix to their names have essayed to write plays. Of clerical writers for the stage the two most celebrated had respectively represented the Church of Scotland and the Church of England. One was John Horne, the author of ‘Douglas.’ in which at one time every tragedian of note was in duty bound to fret his hour. The other was Mi Iman. Dean of St. Paul’s, whose play of ‘Fazio* was produced at Covent Garden, with Charles Kemble and Macready in the cast. 'l’he play opens with a prologue showing the sale of Joseph by his brethren, disclosing an effective Eastern scene, with its familiar landscapes and such accessories as the primitive apparatus at the well as it survives from the. earliest times. The play proper begins with a scene in Potiphar's house, disclosing an Egyptian interior ami an admirably-man aged perspective with the sacred Nile losing itself in a misty suggestive distance. Here the plot begins to develop itself with a scene between Potiphar ami his wife. They are not a sympathetic pair, these two. and the lady is not at much trouble to find the usual stage reason for her preference for the young Hebrew. Joseph. She makes little concealment when Joseph is sent on a mission to the Temple of Osiris, which gives occasion for a beautiful stage picture. Tt may be admitted that it is a hazardous thing to present Egyptian ritual on the stage. Nevertheless. without offending the most critical, it forms a most striking and weird tableau, with its glad music of cymbals and timbrels and its corybantic revellings of maidens as the sun rises and. by an ingenious stage effect, lights up the image of the god Osiris. In the second act is given the reverend author’s version of the temptation of Joseph by Potiphar’s wife. followed by her denunciation of him to Potiphar. ami his being cast info prison. As the curtain falls at the end of this act the stage presents a good study of a happily conceived ami luxuriously harmonious colour scheme. The third and fourth acts vhow Joseph tranedarting Pharaoh’s dream, his exaltation in rank next to that of the king, the recognition by his brethren, ami the final tableau, in the course of which the scene is again enlivened by the dancing ami pint tires* pie groupings of the ladies of Pharaoh’s court. The production promises to Im* as true a representation of the period when the king of Egypt kiM*u Joseph as (xissible. 'l'here will he a long cast of nearly thirty different parts. Mr Woods will himself appear as Joseph, and Miss Maud Williamson will lx* seen in her original <«real ion of Avesha. wife of Potiphar. for which performance the Australian pre-s x|M*ak in the highest terms. To quote rhe ‘Sydney Morning Tieraid': —• •No greater jierfortnance has ever liven seen upon the stage.’ Mr E. B. Rus--ell will appear as Pharaoh. Mr J. P. West as Potiphar. Mr A. W. Boothman as \ta, the Chief Priest. Mr W. E. S< ;igra‘ e ns Knffra. Mr Chas Blake :is L thos. ami Misses Ethel Grey. Nina Burns. Muriel Nation ami Eva lx<*te as I’na, Varda. the Chief Priestess and

Benjamin. The scenery for the entire production is from the brush of Mr John Ricketts. and the mechanical effects, ancient Egyptian furniture, modelling, etc., by Mr Joseph Sturgeon.