Music and Drama.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLV, Issue 19, 9 November 1910, Page 14

Music and Drama.

By

BAYREUTH.

BOOKINGS. (Date* Subject tn Alteration.)

AUCKLAND—IIIS MAJESTY’S. November IT to 19—Mr. Potter. November 21 to 2<J —Auckland Competition! Society. November 28 to December 3—MacMaboa Bros. December 5 to IT—‘Meynclt and Gunn (George Willoughby). December 19 to 24—MacMahon Bros. December 26 (three weeks' season) —Allan Hamilton. THE OPERA HOUSE, In Season—Fuller's Pictures. TIVOLI. Vaudeville (permanent). WELLINGTON.—OP YRA HOUSE. Nov. T to Nov. 14. —William Anderson. Nov. IT to Nor. 24.—Johnson-Jeffries Pictures. Nov. 25 to Dec. 23.—Vacant. Dec. 23 to Jan. 14. —Royal Comics. Jan. 18 to Feb. 2.—J. (’. Williamson. Feb. 3 to Feb. 9.—George Willoughby. May IT to June T. —J. C. Williamson. August IT to August 27,—J. C. Williamson. THEATRE ROYAI* Vaudeville (permanent).

Ward Joins Williamson. THE cable announcement this week that Hugh Ward is to retire in June next and take a hand in J, £,'■ Williamson Ltd., will be news for the theatrical 'world of Australasia. The announcement may be interpreted to mean that J- C. W. himself will for the future remain at “home” to act as principal for the firm in the selection of plays for Australasia. The portly figure and genial emile of the Australian manager is likely also to be absent from Australia for reaeons other than business. He has a partiality for the baths at Marienbad, where many an overtried constitution has gained increased years of usefulness by being handy to “the waters.” The firm which only last year added “Ltd.” to the name of its principal will be all the stronger for the inclusion of Hugh J. Ward in its ranks. There is no other actor-manager in Australasia better suited by ability or experience to undertake the difficult and delicate task of producing and directing dramatic productions of Australasia. He has plenty of youth, energy, and progressive initiative. Mr. Ward was not talking altogether “in the clouds” when ho said to me, in an interview that appeared in these pages on August 3rd last, “I look to the future for the realisation of better things. It is never wise to prophesy, but it seems to me the day is not so far distant as one might suppose when there will be room for the intellectual drama to take its place in our artistic life;”’

Mr. Ward is a believer in what has been claimed in these columns often enough, namely, that there is a definite class of people on this side of the world ■who are sincerely desirous of getting into touch with modern plays. The activities of Shakespearei (or “Shaksperc,” as our more eclectic friends spell it) societies and the range of their readings are a manifestation of that desire. Let me recall the Actor-Manager’s own words last August:—“There would be ample material to draw on if the public responded. As it is, the demand which exists, I believe, can be met from the box office point of view by giving occasional performances. I mean special matinees — nay once a week, on the lines adopted by the Court Thea tre in London in the days of the Vedrenne-Barker combinations.” It is one of Mr. Ward’s ambitions to ace the intellectual classes of the public catered for as well as those who support melodrama and farcical comedies. With the resources of a powerful organisation ft will be possible for him to materialise those ambitions. I understand from a iirivate source in Sydney that the site )M been procured and a special theatre is to be built by J. C. Williamson, Ltd., in one of the Australian cities which will conform to the needs of the modern play. Following the lead given in London and other centres, the theatre will be small enough to permit audiences to follow the expression of the actors. No long runs will be risked. . Short seasons •nd frequent changes of programme are more likely to be the order of the day, •o that intellectual plays will have some chance of succeeding without exhaust-

ing the resources of the audiences who are’ eager to see them. The advent of Mr. Ward into the Williamson camp may therefore be looked to as an event of unusual importance to the drama of Australasia. He is an actor of exceptional experience. His boyhood was spent in a stock theatre at Pittsburgh. He has played in England and America. "His pantomime work in London was quite a feature at the time he rose to prominence in the metropolis. His ventures have carried him into the Far East, whilst in his own words he knows Australasia “through and through.” Altogether, apart from his capacity as manager, Mr. Ward is thoroughly in sympathy with the modern dramatists of to-day who are endeavouring to get the public to realise that shoddy sensationalism, crude emotions and “legs and tomfoolery” are the least of desirable things in the drama. Auckland’s Big Week.

The Auckland Competitions Society have issued their time-table for the big week that is to fill the Northern City with song, recitation, speech and music on the week commencing with 21st. With considerably over 1300 entries to handle, and competitors innumerable looming large in the landscape, Auckland is going to have a busy time crowding all the events into the time that Scripture tells us the earth was made in. His Majesty’s Theatre will be going night and day, whilst both the Y.M.C.A. Hall and the Choral Hall will take up their share of the events. The competitions are due to start on Monday, 9.30 a.m., at the Theatre with the pianoforte solo (“Moonlight Sonata”) and “Humorous’Recital” at the Y.M.C.A. Hall at the same hour. The official opening, however, will take place at 3 p.m. in the Theatre, when a large gather: ing is sure to take place to inaugurate Auckland’s welLdirected effort towards scaling theHieights’of musical and literary ‘ " I .' ■ ' ' ' :

“A Womans Way.” “A Woman's’Wafy,” staged 'by Arthur Chudleigh, is the title of a somewhat pretty comedy produced at the;Comedy Theatre in London last month, with Miss Alexandra Carlisle, a clever and beautiful actress in the forefront of the lighter stage at’ Home, in the leading part. The play (writes a critic) introduces a series of delightful duels of social fencing—a wife for all her wit is worth on behalf of her husband and for the sake of his wavering love. “A Woman’s Way” is the way that Mr. Barrie discovered in “What Every Woman Knows”! if your husband is like to fall in love With another woman, invite her to your house, give him opportunities to see how much nicer, and sweeter, and more- womanly you arc. Do all this .with a proper sense of humour, and there will be no more need of divorce courts. This is what Effie Waldron did when Alan, her husband, a great motorist, and a. flying ■man, was smashed up in a motorcar while driving the “beautiful Mrs. Verney.” While the newspapers are talking of an “Impending Divorce Case” (the play, by the way, comes from America.), and the parents and brothers and Cousins are wanting Effie to pack up and leave her husband, she declines to follow “the hypocrisy of the conventions,” and does just the opposite. Invitation to Dinner. She invites Mrs. Verney to dinner, to meet the whole family, none of whom knows that Mrs. Verney is the heroine of the motor accident. And it appears tlmt while the foolish husband thought he was bhe only «nan who ever called Mrs. Verney “Puss,” she has heard that pet name from nearly every male member of the family. They are all respectably married now. but they all had a flirtatious past with MV. Verney! The comedy develops into a drawingroom farce. The situations are none <the fess laughable if they are Obvious, for the acting is delightful, and every sentence of the dialogue is well turned, and witty, “1 believe it’s because we’ve got too much money,” says Alan Waldron gloomily, -when ho is asked why

relations between his wife and himself are a little atrained. -» . > 7 “This is one of the moments of life when I want you to forget you’re a woman and try to be sane,” says an impassioned lover.. “You’-re looking very well, General,” Norah’s mother remarks icily to Alan’s father, who is touchy on the point of hie age. “Old age shows up less in the male than in the female,” the General retorts with a gobble. It all works on brightly and gaily enough to the happy goal appointed for the “woman’s way,” which leads to Effie’s triumph,, to Mrs. Verney’s discomfiture, and to the disappointment of all who had been setting their mouths for a tit-bit of family scandal. “An Arrant Humbug. . An Unprincipled Liar.” The aviator-actor, Robert Loraine, has come to light in London with a new piece, “The Man from the Sea,” written by W. J. Locke. Mr. Loraine is a young actor of the type that is best described as dashing. His style is an agreeable blend of Sir Charles Wyndham’s suavity and William Terriss’ breeziness. The leading character is described by the “Times” as “an arrant humbug . . . an unprincipled liar.” No seaman who ever lived could have 'talked as Jan Redlander talks. He “spouts poetry” by the yard, and most of his lines are Alexandrines which scan beautifully. Men from the sea do not usually apostrophise the “surf breaking on the coral reef and the lap of the waves in the blue lagoons.” They, are not customarily capable of delivering themselves, in the rush of conversation of such a mouthful as “the constabulary—an artificial adjunct to artificial civilisation.” They do not hold shells to ladies’ ears and inform them,' ecstatically, that if they listen

intently they will hear the whirring of the seabirds’ wings and receive the eternal, mysterious message of the sea.

Conversational Seaman. The conversation of a man from the sea is altogether more abrupt, and infinitely more convincing. Therefore, Jan Redlander, despite his overpowering breezmess, is no true example of the

type of men who go, down to the sea la ships. He is an exotic — a figment of the dramatist’s imagination. -s That Mr. Loraine should be able to make such a character in the least bit convincing speaks volumes for his histrionic ability and for the vigour of hie personality. The story of “The Man from the Sea” is said to be as artificial as the titlepart. - - ■■* Jan Redlander is a modern Ulysses; a restless rover, who has ranged the world from China to Ecuador, from Arizona to Cape Horn. After 'twelve years of adventure be returns to his dear, kind, restful folk in that backwater of the world, the English cathedral town of Durdieham. The soul of joyous Jan revolts, of course, against the woeful ways of Durdieham, arid in his wrath he coins a phrase, “to durdle,” which will become as popular as the historic “to sweedle” in a recent comedy by Mr. Henry Arthur Jones. He catches, for example, a Durdlehamite in the act of reading a book, entitled “Edifying Opinions on Death by Several Eminent Divines.” That, indeed, “is the drivelling essence of durdling.” Oh! the cackling tea-parties, the decorous dinners of Durdleham! Give Jan Redlander “the 'throb of doing, and not durdling”! “ Crystallised Conscience.” But the one particular nut in the way, of durdling that Jan is determined to crack is “that hardest thing in the world, a crystallised conscience.” The owner of the conscience is his former flame, Marion Lee, whom he is bent on marrying—and does marry in the end. Marion Lee’s bosom friend, Daphne Averill, is living with a Durdleham doctor while her husband —a thief, drunkard, gambler—is serving four years’ penal servitude in an Australian gaol. Saintly Marion Lee’s first impulNj on learning her friend’s secret is to tell the Dean —whereupon the erring Daphne would quickly be durdled out of Durdleham. Redlander, aware how little the Averills were to blame for the irregularity of their union, set himself to defeat

Uieee counsels of conscience. AT! ottier •means having failed, he invents a desperate scheme. What? On reflection in cold. blood, it seems almost incredible. He calls on Marion to say good-bye. I have, says he, a wife living—-mad, but living. We cannot be legally married, and, knowing your views, I see it is useless to ask you to come with me to my coral island unmarried. And with this outrageous falsehood he eo plays on ithe passions of the desolate widow" that she flings herself into his arms. Marriage or none, the once conscientious woman cannot be without him. Now she is in the same ease as Mrs. Averill. She understands the strength of love, and her mouth is sealed.

The Latest Shriek. London has received yet another melodrama from the pen of that indefatigable person who writes under the name of Walter Melville. The outstanding feature of the thriller is, first, the title—- “ The Sins of London” —and, secondly, the abnormal number of villains. The proportion to the remainder of the cast works out at 45 per cent. Naturally, the audiences, which flock to such performances, were prepared cheerfully to witness' any amount of crime, and the business included a number of forgeries and an attempted murder in a cellar, an explosion in an ocean-going steamer and a mutiny. Out of the danger of the seas eseaped the senior villain, Julian Crawford, financier, to claim the property of his lovely ward, Millie Anderson, reckoned as drowned in the foundered steamer. London, with its sins, was good enough for this Napoleon of crime until Millie and her brave sweetheart Jack, after a long exile on a tropical island, came home to settle accounts. The majority of authors of that period of the story would have finished the tale, but Mr. Melville only then began a new series of thrills. The financier had a whole bagful of crimes unexhausted. He spirited away the hero to a noisome cellar, and having drugged Millie sent her away to a church to be married to his son. . -

But an awful retribution was close at hand, for Jack escaped in the nick of time from the cellar, and just when the clergyman was about to marry “the drug-stricken bride” the brave fellow leaped into the church to take his place ibeside the girl he loved. How the music crashed out the glad welcome, how’ the house cheered, how the actors bowed, . and bowed again, is now history.. - ? • Opinions differ about one of the seelies in the melodrama, as witness tljese' t'wo -' pars: — • < u . . . the long scene on the deserted island, where the sun drops like a meteor to its bed.—“ Westminster Gazette.” - - The lovers whispered soft nothings by the shore, whilst a harvest moon that % seemed uncertain in its movements raced hurriedly down to meet the horizon as the curtain descended.—“ Observer.” . Whatever happened, it must be of some consolation to the people who hate to be disillusioned that the moon or the sun, whichever it was, did not twinkle. New Plays for this Side of the World. Mr. Geo. Willoughby has purchased the Australian and New Zealand . rights of Willard Holcomb’s dramatic stage version of Mrs. Augusta J. Evans Wilson’s novel “St. Elmo.’’ This book is wellknown, and the play secured by Mr. Willoughby is the only version authorised by Mrs. "Wilson and her publishers. It is said to preserve as far as possible within dramatic limits of time and space the main incidents and atmosphere of the original romance. The scenes are laid in South America before the Civil war. The new piece by B. C. Carton, “Mr. Preedy ami the Countess,” which has succeeded “The Night of the Party” at the Criterion Theatre in Sydney, is said to be full of clever humour, so that playgoers are not invited to laugh at mere nonsense or buffoonery. “A Fool There Was” is the title of a drama founded upon Kipling’s poem “The Vampire,” which is just now being played in America, and is shortly due in London. This piece will he seen in Australia early next year, Mr. George Willoughby having purchased the rights. It will, be in the repertory of the company which lie is about to form to produce “The Woman in the Case. ’ The “Chocolate Soldier" Secured for Australia. “The Chocolate Soldier” —the musical parody of Bernard Shaw’s “Arms and the Man”—which was produced in London rtk'i'th big siiedess, is to come to Australia. Messrs. Clarke and Meynell have secured

the rights. Earnest Shavians —and there are some, it appears!—were completelybewildered, fey the new piece at the Lyrig. • According to the English notices, the same “Arms and the Man” story has been employed, but with a seasoning. of lyrics obviously from some other hand than that of “ G. 8.5.,” and with some of the familiar gags of musical comedy. Meanwhile, the amused are asking, What is “ G.B.S.’s” attitude? The programme, says the “ Dally Chronicle,” offers apolo. gies to Mr. Shaw for an unauthorised parody on one of his comedies. But the thing isn’t a parody, and it could not be unauthorised, since it contains whole speeches only slightly varied from the Shaw original. The story goes, however, that Mr. Shaw was, in fact, approached. The German libretto, it is said, was written and Mr. Oscar Strauss added his captivating music. Both together were then sent to Mr. Shaw, with a cheque for several thousand pounds, in anticipation of his sanction. He returned the cheque and refused his sanction. Despair on the part of adaptors and composers? Then followed an appeal to Mr. Shaw’s good nature. This was' successful. Permission gratis, but nothing more at any price! So. “The Chocolate Soldier” is produced in Germany, with success; in America with success; in England, with success! This is just the story that is

going round. The great thing in the piece is Oscar' Strauss' miisie’ which is described as “absolutely charming.” “It is full of life- and wit and melody, and delicate' little touches of orchestration, is the . verdict of the “ Chronicle.” Mr. Clyde Meynell, writing to his firm regarding the production, states that on the opening night at the Lyric Theatre the audience went wild with enthusiasm, and that Osear Strauss, the composer of the opera, who travelled from Vienna to be present, was accorded a memorable ovation when the curtain fell. „ Surely things in Australasia have come to a pretty pass when none of the leading theatrical organisations will stage any of Shaw’s plays, whilst they don’t mind one bit snapping up a parody of his works ? ~ Miss Marie Hall's Tour. Miss Marie Hall, the famous violinist, has, commenced at Durham her long tour, ■which is to extend over ten months, and in the course of which she will play at 200 concerts. She was to give four concerts at Durban before proceeding to Johannesburg, ami probably Pretoria. Her last appearances in South Africa will be at Capetown, where she gives eight concerts. She next visits India, where she is to play in Bombay, Calcutta, and several other cities. From India she proceeds to China and Japan, and then she is to fulfil engagements in New Zealand and Australia. For the tour she has been guaranteed the sum of £lO,OOO, and in addition she is to have a share in the profits of each concert which shows a surplus of more than £5O. Auckland Liedertafel. , , The Auckland Liedertafel concluded its season at the Choral Hall last Week with a. line programme under, the. direct ion of Doctor Thomas. The choral selections on the whole were well rendered by a choir

of 64 voices, although there in one or two items not. the elan and crispness one would-like to have heard. . Raffs’ “A Call to the Empire”—a stirring composition for baritone and male chorus, and presented to the Society by Madame Melba—received a moderately good rendering, considering the difficulties it presents. The solo part was in the hands of Mr. W. Ryan, A spirited number was Dudley Buck’s "The Signal Resounds from Afar.” Carl Fischer's “Calm at Sea” was not free from blemish, otherwise it might have provided some truly poetic moments, and "Pilgrim's Evening Star” (Kueken) was the concluding number to a concert of average merit, in which none of the vocalists gave any very distinctive performance. Both Madam Chambers and Mr. J. W. Ryan, as well as Mr. W. Aspinall, were recalled, and all contributed more or less to the success of the concert. £3OO Per Night Madame Melba told an interviewer recently that the work of getting the artists together for the Australian opera season next year is nearly completed. All the artists whom Madame Melba hoped to secure for the Commonwealth have been obtained with the exception of Mlle. Destinn. Although this great

singer was offered fWO per night her engagements would not allow her to accept a contract which would necessitate so long an absence from Europe. Farce and Farcical Productions. “Tlie Man from Cooks; or, The Girl of Ostend,” is virtually the last half of the title, or the piece in which Charles Hawtrey made such a hit with in days bygone. It is a farcical jumble in three aets with the usual stereotyped characters dressed.up to represent human beings. Fred Graham and Gerald Kay Souper are really the piece. The former has to fill the part of a man who, for the greater part of the first act, staggers over the stage in a state of intoxication. This may be funny—Fred Graham is certainly a splendid mimic—but it is hardly tho thing to expect intelligent folk to do otherwise than yawn at. The remaining two aets sec him a husband victimised by a decoy on the sands at Ostend, and led into making violent love to a strange lady, whilst the biograph quietly records the whole scene. The same thing happens to his friend Baron de Longchamps (Mr. Kay Souper), and his father-in-law (Mr. Alfred Harford). When the films are shown in London, the “erring” husbands and their wives are plunged into consternation. On this motive the whole action turns, The situit'qns become very laugh, able as the piece proceeds, ami the success of it in the eyes of the auflien.ee largely springs from the talents of the two leading comedians already named. But, however elever and brilliant these individual parts may be, (for Fred Graham is an irresistible comedian of infinite resource) pieces of this class with their strained situations, their worn-out humour, and their uuhuinan types, are no longer appealing to tho great bulk of the people. The plain fact is, we—that is, moat of us —want something which does not fad so conspicuously in its appeal to' human credulity.

Stray Note* ~ t , The. fact that sporting melodramas occupy the boards' of two 'Melbourne theatres at the present time, and are drawing crowded houses, gives rise to some reflections, says “The Southern Sphere.” It is true that there are a great many devotees of the turf in this community, and that there are many artistically unsophisticated souls to whom the transpontine drama supplies full satisfaction, but it would .not, despite the evidence of the well-filled auditoriums of the theatres, be a legitimate conclusion to draw that sporting melodrama is' the kind of theatrical pabulum with which the Australian public will remain content. In neither instance is the plot of the play up even to the ordinary standard of Drury Lane. In both the sporting chances, which prove such a delusion in real life, prove the financial salvation of the hero—a winning ticket in one and a wager with a bookmaker in the other—not a very high ethical ideal to present to an intelligent community. Hall Caine’s play “The Eternal Question” has been a failure in London. It was withdrawn three weeks after staging, and was to be replaced by another hashed-iip production from the same author, entitled "The Bishop's Son.” "The Dollar Princess” has run for a year in London, and is still going strong. "The Whip” at Drury Lane has also completed its anniversary, whilst “Our Miss Gibbs” continues to draw crowded houses in the Metropolis. Clarke and Meynell’s pantomime thia coming Christinas will be “Dick Whittington and his Cat.”