Music and Drama.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLV, Issue 25, 21 December 1910, Page 13

Music and Drama.

By

BAYREUTH.

BOOKINGS. <D*tea Subject to Alteration.* AUCKLAND—HIS MAJESTY'S. December 19 to 24—MacMahon Bros. December 2U (three weeks’ season) —Plim-mer-Deuniston Company. THE OPERA HOUSE. In Season— Fuller’s Picture* WELLINGTON.—OPCItA HOUSE. Dec. 23 to Jan. 14.—’’The Dollar Princess.” iin » B ?°J’ eb - Williamson, reb. 3 to Feb. 9.—George Willoughby. May 17 to June 7.—J. C. Williamson. August 17 to August 27.—J. C. Williamson. THEATRE ROYAL, Vaudeville (permanent). Bernard Shaw on Brama and Life. SERXARD SHAW has been voicing some clear-eut views in regard to the modeiu stage and its influence upon the minds of the multitude. It must be remembered that bhaw speaks with an exceptionally acute perception of the fact that the stage to-day enters much more widely and influences many more minds—young minds particularly—than it did twenty years ago. Theatre-going has become a habit, and it is no longer denied to the youth of Anglo-Saxon communities to the extent that it was. There are many people in New Zealand to-day who can recall the solemn objurgations that were instilled into their young minds about the impropriety of going to theatres and the wickedness of the people who performed there. To-day the theatre is one of the most powerful agencies in the realm for influencing the ideas of young people, in colouring their hopes of happiness, and imparting conceptions (right or wrong) as to the lives and thoughts of other people. Its importance as a social teacher is hardly yet realised. Its influence, powerful and widespread, is allowed to prevail without recognition or control by the educational authorities of the day. Its activity in the dissemination of ideas is ignored, despite the fact that in these days it is nearer to the Press in its appeal to -the public than the pulpit itself is. Air. Shaw realised these truths early enough, and his difficulty has been like many another man’s, to bring it home not to the people, but the public authorities themselves. His remarks are therefore all the more interesting, and I beg leave to quote them in full. They were made in the form of an address recently to a large audience in the Glasgow Repertory Theatre on “ Public Enterprise and Dramatic Art.” He began by referring to an obvious defect in the present day educational system; boys and girls after an elementary education drifted into occupations for which they were mentally and physically unfitted. Children were not taught how to enjoy themselves, hence they were glad to get away from school. “It is a hundred times more important to teach children how to enjoy themselves than to teach them how to work.” The value of technical education, for instance, might be largely destroyed through the invention of machinery and other developments in industry. That did not apply to enjoyment. The theatre was not superseded by the cinematograph. Boys -who ieft school might or might not take to work willingly or unwillingly; they certainly would enjoy themselves if they were human beings at all, and to learn them how to enjoy themselves properly was important. If they were not taught to enjoy themselves properly they would enjoy themselves in an undesirable fashion. The drinking of beer and whi-ky and an extremely eoarse kind of lovemaking might form a large part of •their notions of enjoyment, because they knew no better. “Then,” said Mr. Shaw, “you turn round and reproach them for their being vicious, and ask them to try and curb their propensities to be vicious. Possibly good and -wise advice,” he added, “but their vicious propensities are their natural and human propensities, only they have not been trained.” He illustrated the point by relating a personal experttmce. It was hie custom, he said, to take a morning walk from his house in

London (mentioning incidentally that a ■walk lasting from 15 to 20 minutes he considered a good walk), and on such occasions he sometimes met crowds of people going to their work. Such a. sight almost destroyed his day. He bad also witnessed a woman picking scraps from dust-bins. If he had the power to destroy conventional civilisation he felt at such times that there was a good reason for exercising it. Superior persons might say, “How horrid to take things to eat of a dust-bin,” but, said Mr. Shaw, “If you cannot get food otherwise you must go to the dustbin.” Art and Life. He went on to point the moral in regard to enjoyment. People took to a low form of enjoyment because of limited opportunities; they had never been taught better. Even such literary persons as the critics of art, music, and the drama in our modern Press were found expressing the greatest discomfort and anguish at the work of men who were seeking to enlarge the boundaries of art. They were found declaring that there was no melody in Wagner, and that Ibsen's plays were merely talk, which they also said of the plays of another dramatist he would not name. In a characteristically whimsical fashion he emphasised his point with a Glasgow "impression.” When he was last in Glasgow he got the impression that Glasgow was drunk. He got that impression on a Saturday night, and “really and truly Glasgow seemed drunk. I don’t know how many of you ladies and gentlemen were in that condition,” he went on amidst laughter, "but you are a very small part of the population of Glasgow.” On this occasion he was glad to find that Glasgow appeared to have becomff sober, and one reason for that probably was the existence of a repertory theatre. Probably, also, the improved state of matters was due to the institution of two shows a night at music-halls. The music-hall he described as the theatre of the more simple kind of man, and he confessed that when he wanted to enjoy himself he generally went to a music-hall. There was often found there much better entertainment than was to be found at the theatre. There was in the theatre a complete domination of what he described as “the romantic view of life.” And this led him to contrast the influence of the theatre with the influence of the Church. He did not know if they had noticed that people now went to the theatre and did not go to the bhurch. That might not be the case in Glasgow, but it was so in London. There, before the doors of the theatre opened, you would see long queues of people standing on the pavement. You did not see that outside the doors of churches. People nowadays got their minds formed in the theatre, and they were the more effectually formed because they did not go to the theatre for that purpose. People might go to the ehureh with the greatest regularity on Sunday and spend the rest of the week acting directly contrary to what they had heard in ehureh. On the other hand, you would find people acting in accordance with the standpoint and the sentiments learned in the theatre. The romantic view of life learned in the theatre was evidenced in various ■ways. It was manifest among the criminal classes in the frequent cases reported of the use of firearms, resulting often in murder. It was noticeable also in international relations, such as those between this country and Germany. “The demoralisation spread by the art of the theatre at the present time is monstrous. You find an Emperor acting like a hero in melodrama.” “ Paying ” Drama. It was not for lack of literary drama,' the plays were there, but they were not performed. The reason such plays were not performed was because they did not pay. It had been pointed out in an intelligent Glasgow newspaper that any cause that required to be bolstered up, tliat if this Repertory Theatre did not pay, it had better cease. Mr. Sluuw took a contrary view. He instanced a number of civic, enterprises, such as the paving and lighting of streets and sanitation, which did not pay in a com-

mercial sense, ami yet these were of prime importance. If they were ceased in Glasgow because they did not pay, all the wise people would leave Glasgow and all the unwise people would soon cease to exist. He argued that the same principle applied to the theatre. At the present time our theatres were run for commercial profit because they paid, and there was an overwhelming supply of crude and superficial drama. He related his own experience at the Court Theatre, London, along with Mr. Granville Barker and Mr. Vedrenne. They produced there great plays (he instanced "The Trojan Women,” by Professor .Murray), but it was found that they proved unprofitable. ami now and again "You Never Can Tell” (of which he was heartily tired) had to be put on as a draw. They extended the movement to the West End of London, and after spending as much as they could afford the enterprise had to be abondoned. Mr. Charles Frohman, “the Napoleon of the theatre,” started a repertory theatre, but that enterprise also vanished with startling suddenness. People must absolutely put aside all commercial considerations in order to get into their midst a good theatre, doing the best woik possible. The fact that such theatres were not commercially profitable did not alter the fact that they were vitally necessary. They were necessary for the good of our young and for the sake of general culture. Such theatres mere (commercial speculation could not possibly supply. Laurence Housman Gives Public Reading of Banned Play. Mr. Laurence Housman gave a reading from his play “Pains and Penalties” in the Bechstein Hall, in London, recently. At the outset the author explained that the play had been censored by the Lord Chamberlain as a whole, and that the offer to postpone its production until after the Coronation had not succeeeded in removing the ban. The play deals with the life of George IV. and Queen Caroline. * Act I. opens in Caroline’s villa at Leghorn, where she is surrounded by servants who are in the secret pay of the Alilan Commission, formed by the British Government to secure incriminating evidence against her. News of the death of George 111. is brought to Caroline by Vizard, her legal adviser. She is told that she must remain abroad, and on no account appear in England to assert her rights as Queen there. This Caroline refuses to do, and complains bitterly of the cruel way she has been treated by George IV., and the English. The aet closes with her determination to return to England and claim her share of the throne. The scene of the remainder of the play is laid in England, at the trial in the House of Lords. Brougham, Denman, and Lushington, Caroline’s counsel, are introduced in consultation with her, and the Italian witnesses are shown to have broken down in their testimony against her. The Queen’s Grand Chamberlain appears from Italy, and declares his resolution to enter the witness-box and prove her innocence. But Caroline tells him to return—no matter how truthful he may be, the lawyers are sure to make him tell lies in crossexamination. The final act takes place on the day’ of George the IV.’s coronation. Caroline, after being shut out of Westminster and stoned by the mob, returns crashed and dejected to her house in St. Jamcs’-square. What Offended the Court Flunkey Censor. The text of the second act, which gives a version of the House of Lords trial, mainly condensed from public records. is published in full in the November issue of the “English Review.” When the solicitor for the prosecution (Mr. Powell) is called as a witness, the following dialogue takes place:— Brougham: Mr. Powell, who is your client or employer in these proceedings? Attorney-General: My Ix>rd, I object. Lord Chancellor: The question cannot be allowed. Brougham: My Lords, it is a very important question, and I have no object in putting it except for the purposes of strict justice. This is the first witness that has appeared at your Lordships’ bar who could give us any’ information upon this point. Is it not of great importance to know from this witness, the solicitor for the prosecution, who is his client, when we are acting as counsel for a defendant open and avowed? If 1 knew who that person

was, might I not be able to bring forward documents, speeches, and communications without number against him, ami highly important to the cause of my client? But up to this moment I have never been able to trace the local habitation—the name of the unknown being who is the plaintiff in these proceeding's. I know not but it may vanish into thin air. 1 know not under what shape it exists: If shape it might be called, that shape had none. Distinguishable in member. joint, or limb— Or substance might lie called thatl shadow seemed; For each seemed either. Black it stood as night. Fierce as the furies, terrible as hell, And shook a dreadful dart: What seemed his head lhe likeness of a Kingly crown had on!” [Great sensation among Lords. Duke of Cumberland: By Gad! the fellow deserves to be impeached! During a subsequent address to the Court Brougham says: "5 ou have before you. my Lords, the evidences of a persecution unexampled in the history of the world. The downsitting and the uprising of this illustrious lady have been watched sedulously and secretly, not merely for months, but for years. . . . And to avenge what fancied wrong, the conjugal rights of what tender and faithful spouse has this mockery of a trial been instituted? .... Silence shudders in answer to a question so framed—even as the heart also shudders at the callousness which allows such evidence as your Lordships have heard to be uttered against one who has fulfilled in the past the sacred duties of mother and wife! . . . .” Because the play reveals the despicable methods of George IV. in seeking to divorce Queen taroline, lhe Censor, true

eourt flunkey to the core, declines to license the production, a ml thus shatters in one blow six months' kilxuir upon which the living of the dramatist, depends. England is sublimely tolerant of •these offences of stupidity against intelligence. It is little wonder that all the leading dramatists have united in a joint protest against such a proceeding. Modern Wits—Some Good Stories. Seymour Hicks, the well-known London cotnedy actor, has collected stories and sayings of most of the modern wits, and deftly woven them in with the recital of his own experiences. The result is a very amusing book of 300 odd •pages. I quote a few of his stories, only stopping to mention that there are many scores more: A Line for the Bills. on me generally say: ‘His amazing vitality’ or ‘He seemed to perspire more than usual on this occasion’; a notice of this kind drawing from Mr. Pinero the remark: ‘Seymour, if I were you. 1 should not advertise “Doors open at eight,” I should alter it to ‘‘Pores open at nine!” ' Rutland Barrington in Tune. “On one of the Gilbert premieres Mr. Gilbert was seated in a box watching hiH work when a young lady turned to him and said: ‘Oh, Mr. Gilbert, Rutland Harrington is singing in tune.' ‘lt’s only first night nervousness; he'll get over it/ said Gilbert.’ Chaffing Wyndham. “Henry Hamilton, entering the read-ing-room of the Green Room Club one day, saw Sir Charles Wyndham, who was at that time delighting London by •his beautiful performance of Garrick at the Criterion Theatre. ‘Ah!’«said Hamilton to our greatest light comedian, More like Garrick every day and less like him every night.’ ” Brookfield and Grossmith. “On his return to England, alter his recitals in America, Mr. George Grossin ith began comparing the art of entertaining with that of acting. ‘You fellows/ he said, ‘have to take out scenery, properties, plays, and a large company, while 1 just landed in New York with any piano and a dress suit, and I made i£‘30;000/ *1 da resay.’ -snapped Charles ’Brookfield, ‘but we don’t all look so <1—■ — funny in our dress suits.' ” The “ Richard III.” Make-up. “Talking of my Richard 111.. I met Claude Carton, who said to me: ‘Seymour, I hear you are going to play Richard.’ I said ‘Yes/ ‘Ah’ well/ said the witty author, ‘you'll be saved some trouble in the make-up. You won’t have to wear the hump.' ’Why not?’ T insquired. ‘Oh, the audience will have that/ he said.” The Critics’ Play. “Clement Scott did some play-writing. •His adaption of ‘lXenise’ had heen in the hands of several London managers for a considerable period, each in turn paying a sum of money on account of fees, which became forfeit to Scott on non-production. At last, Augustus Harris took an option on it, paying £2OO on account of royalties. Being in want of a piece, Harris decided to try the plat”. A friend of Scott’s, rushing to the author's house, shouted: ‘All my congratulations, old man: Harris is going to do your play!’ ‘ls he, by George!’ said Scott. ‘Then I am ruined!'” A Self-possessed Show Lady. “On a Monday night at the Gaiety Theatre the show ladies always talked more than on any other night in the week. Having Iwen away for the weekend they had many notes to compare. On this evening one lovely lady was relating some experience so loudly as I sang that she knocked all the words .out of my head. 1 said toCaryll: ‘One and the band istopped. I turned to her of the wagging tongue, and said: ‘Dear lady, will you finish your story or shall I finish my song?' Not in the least taken aback, sht* said: ‘Do you know, dearie, it's a matter of the utmost indifference to me what you do.’ ‘ fl'lie house laughed heartily at the way 1 Jiad been scored off.” Australian Grand Opera Tour. There is an unlikely rumour abroad that the conductor for Melba's Opera Company to tour Australasia next year will be Mr. Landon Ronald, ln*st known on the other side by hi.sexceedingly clever songs, one of which, “Down

in the Forest.” ’Melba herself sang frequently at her last eoneert season in Melbourne with popular acclamation. Mr. Ronald has a good reputation in Ixindon, not only for his work as a composer, but for his feats as a conductor. Next to Henry J. Wood and Thomas Beecham. lie is the chief of the younger generation of those who •*> in for original interpretation with the ■baton. He is also one of the many brilliant Jewish artists who predominate in the world of music to-day. In London he conducts the New Symphony Orchestra, and at present is running a series of splendid Sunday concerts at the Albert Hall, at which leading artists are appearing. He was appointed to the New Symphony Orchestra after Mr. Thomas Beecham gave it up to take up a wider work in the spread of musical culture. Why the Rumour Is Unlikely. The latest news concerning him is that he has just been appointed to the directorship of the London Guildhall School of Music. Mr. Ronald's ambition is to make the Guildhall School not only the best centre of musical training in England, but equal in every respect to the finest conservatories of the Continent. Speaking to an interviewer in regard to the appointment, he said: “I want to make the school equal to any establishment for musical education. English or foreign, that can be named. For this purpose I shall surround myself with the finest staff of professors it is possible to obtain. It is too early yet to mention names, but 1 can assure you the list, when it is published, will lie a surprise.” “'What particular side of the school’s activity will you be especially interested in?” he was asked. “The orchestral and choral. I mean to make the students’ orchestra of the Guildhall School as fine a .body of instrumentalists as can be formed with the students constantly changing. It will be at least 110 strong. I shall not train the band on hackneyed lines. 1 believe in familiarising young musicians with the works of . modern composers, both light and otherwise." Mr. Landon Ronald will retain the baton over the New Symphony Orchestra, a decision that will be appreciated by those who know what- a finished body of players he has made of them. “Of course, to do the two things will mean very heavy work," he said, “but I think I shall be able to manage it.” Mr. Ronald, who is only 37, will have a salary of £ 1.000. At the early age of 18 he became second conductor at Covent Garden, and four years later he conducted his first opera there. Later he was associated with Madame Melba, and when the London Symphony Orchestra was formed he became conductor. Mr. Ronald is the composer of about 100 songs and a number of orchestral works. It is not likely now that he will visit Australia with Melba. Christmas Pantomime at Drury Lane. Choice has fallen on the favouite old nursery story of “Jack and the Beanstalk” as the subject for the pantomime to be produced at Drury Lane Theatre, in London, on Boxing night. Messrs. J. Hickory Wood, Frank Dix, and Arthur Collins are jointly responsible for the book, and Mr. J. M. Glover is supplying the music. An important character in the production will be the cow (represented by Mr. Arthur Conquest), whose sale by the luckless Jack for five beans leads to such unforeseen results. When the curtain rises on the second part, the monster beanstalk is seen towering to a great height, and Jack ascends into the land of giants. This year the giant, who falls out of his kingdom on to our earth, proves to be ex-President Roosevelt, whose colossal body extends the whole width of the ample stage. Novel and striking scenic effects will be introduced, one of the most curious being a whirlwind in the scene representing a market place, which is swept clear of its stalls and their occupants. Miss Dolly Castles has been engaged as the principal girl. Elocutionist for New Zealand. Mr. Laurence (ampbell, an elocutionist of considerable reputation in Australia, who adjudicated for several years at the Ballarat Competitions, commences a tour of New Zealand at Wellington on Christmas Night at the Opera House. Before coming to Aus-

tralia Mr. Campbell made his appearance in London, where it was said of his entertainments by the “Daily News,” “They may be recommended as healthy, as they are in the highest sense enjoyable.” He has a considerable repertoire, including Diekens’ “A Christmas Carol,” Tennyson’s “Charge of the Light Brigade,” Is* Fann’s “Shamus O’Brien,” Kipling’s “Fuzzy Wuzzy,” and numerous humorous and musical monologues as well. His Shakesperian recitals are as follows:—“Henry VIIL,” Act HL, Sc. 2, Cardinal Wolsey and Cromwell; “Othello,” Act L, Sc. 3, Duke, Othello, Brabantio, lago, and Desdemona; “As You Like It,” Act IL, Scenes 1 and 3, Duke Senior, Amiens, Jaques, First Lord and Orlando; “Merchant of Yenice,” Act L. Sc. 3, Shylock. Antonio and Bassanio; “Julius Caesar,” Act 1., Sc. 1, Flavius, Marullus, Shoemaker and Carpenter; and “Macbeth,” Act IV'., Sc. 3, Macduff, Malcolm and Rosse. The elocutionist brings with him a Russian baritone, M. Eugene Ossipoff, who sings operatic selections; and Miss Rene Lees, accompanist. After playing several nights at Wellington, the party visit various country towns, and arrive at Auckland in time to give recitals on 14th, 16th, and 17th January. Mr. Ernie E. Booth, the well-known “All Black” footballer, and captain of Sydney’s premier team, “Newtown,” is making the necessary arrangements for the recitals at the different centres of the Dominion. “Behind the Veil"—Psychic Drama. A curious play, entitled “Behind the Veil." written by Air. Cecil Raleigh, has lieen produced in London with somewhat mixed results. Some of the critics refuse to take it seriously, and in their notices there is a general spirit of levity not usually conspicuous in the dramatic writings of London dailies. The play is classed by the author as psychic drama. Prince Maurice Le Noir—the name is symbolic—is to be regarded as the embodiment of what we are wont to qualify as “psychic force.” He is a seeker after the unknowable, the unseeable, the unattainable. But that by no means exhausts the range of potentialities. He is also a victim to morphia, a noted viveur. a dissolute runagate, a profligate. In consequence he is held in righteous horror by

his saintly cousin. Lady Margaret Courtenay. Mother Superior of a French convent. Nor does she scruple to tell'him s® in the plainest terms when he pays her an occasional visit. Just before his coming, another cousin, pretty, golden-haired, and full of womanly sympathy, has arrived from Australia. By way of a joke, she dons the Mother Superior’s robes, and having, from dread of discovery, concealed lierself on the Prince’s entrance, unwillingly overhears a heated controversy between Lady Alargaret and the Prince, towards the close of which the latter hysterically announces liis intention of using his wonderful will-power in order to restore to his elderly companion her pristine youth and beauty. Lady Alargaret conveniently slips away, and. just as a tremendous thunderstorm bursts over the convent, the other Alargaret takes her place, throws off her nun’s disguise, lets down her golden hair, and in the full blaze of sudden limelight announces that the miracle has happened! The “Daily Telegraph’s” critic refuses to be inspired by any such thrilling climax. He treats the play not too serif ously when he offers the following as criticism: “Her sole excuse for this extraordinary step is that she sees no other way by which to rescue the Prince’s soul from perdition. The dispassionate onlooker will probably suggest that she would almost certainly have been quite as successful, and. incidentally, have saved herself and others a lot of trouble, had she depended on her own powers as a charming and fascinating maiden, equipped with no more formidable armour than her girlish sweetness and persuasive loveliness. That, however, would have brought the play to a premature conclusion, and deprived the Prince of innumerable opportunities of airing his views respecting the world and its birth, protoplasm, the riddle of the earth, and, among other things, the origin of species. All this he discusses at very considerable length. Also, lie fights a duel, and. being wounded, becomes more hysterically ‘psychic’ than ever. With the view of curing him. Alargaret. on the advice of an eminent brain specialist, pretends that she is no better than she should be, joins in the revels organised by the most debauched of the Prince’s old comrades, and altogether makes a very good show of throwing her bonnet over the windmills.

But, of course, all comes right Tn the end; the Prinee recovers from his ‘psychic’ attack, and the curtain falls upon tlie prospect of his settling down into a cominonsense and reformed Benedict.” The Plimmer-Denniston Company. The Plimmer-Denniston Co. is at present playing the Waikato towns with “ Lover’s Lane ” and “ The Passing of the Third Floor Back.” They return to Auckland on Friday, 23rd, to commence the holiday season in His Majesty’s Theatre, on Boxing Day (Monday), with a matinee of “A Message from Mars.” Many people will he happy to once more make the acquaintance of Horace Parker and his wonderful dream by which a selfish, irritable man is transformed into a kindly human being. Harry Plimmer will play Horace Parker; Mr. Reynolds Denniston, The Messenger; Mr. S. A. Fitzgerald, The Tramp; whilst Mrs. Robert Brough will appear as Aunt Martha, Miss Lizette Parkes as Minnie Templar, and Miss Beatrice Usher as Mrs. Clarence. " Lovers’ Lane” will be revived for two nights, viz., on Monday 2nd and Tuesday 3rd January, and during the season the management intends staging “Th® Second Mrs. Tanqueray,” and also “ The Profligate.” - The box plan is now open, at Wildman and Arey’s, and day sale tickets may be obtained at Marteili’s. Penny Dreadful Moving Pictures. It seems a little superfluous to pay one •or two shillings, or even sixpence to see “ The Squatter’s Daughter,” at His Majesty’s Auckland, when you can get just about as many horrors packed into the pages of a penny dreadful. The people of Australasia have primarily to thank Mr. William Anderson, the champion purveyor of melodramatic fantasia on this side of the world, for a turgid mess of cheap sensationalism. It is a shriek in films of that particular order which delights in bloodthirsty bushrangers, revolvers, murders, impossible heroes, and amazingly absurd incidents. The story seems to be a disordered jumble of The-Face-at-the-Window —Heart-of-a-Hero — Worst-Woman-in-London — Girl’s-Cross-Roads type of production masquerading m Australian garb and surroundings. A perfect salvo of pistol shots accompany the production with plenty of slow music from the orchestra, whilst a perspiring gentleman at the wings rolls the story off with melodramatic fervour above the general din and excitement. The pictures as pictures are about the worst I have seen for some time. They are character: istie of the shoddy methods and pathetic efforts at reality the sensation mongers of the - stage in Australasia make. Cardboard eaves, calico houses execrably -painted, false beards and grease-painted -‘•aborigines” are painfully apparent. The incidents themselves are ludicrous—for instance;- people who are, supposed to have been galloping all night in pursuit of the villains, eofiie iip’ to, the camera in a desperate canter'/oii perfectly fresh horses, pull up, gesticulate wildly to the horizon, and then pass on';:' Some of the films appear to have been infected with a gruesome type of microbe that appears with a regularity quite disconcerting'to those members of the audience who enjoy a nip pow and then. There at? plenty of murders, bludgeonings, abductions, and sawny love scenes to keep rone's blood in a fiery fluidic turmoil, but there is one scene that verges on the indecent, and ought to' be suppressed The audience are shown the heroine, in the hands of the villain in a secluded part of the wilds. The scene would be obvious enough, but it amounts to an outrage on public decency that the interpreter at the wings should have to elucidate it with a •stentorian shout, “Well, if you won't be my lover, I’ll make you my mistress.” Any person in life behaving thus in front of a crowd would be arrested 1 on a serious criminal charge, and it is almost incredible that such incidents should be allowed to be exploited for the,purpose of making another morbid sensation so as to provide profits for a thoroughly commercialised moving-picture investor. Stray Note*. . It is refreshingly pleasant to find fresh points of view. “Musicians-,” said an expert. witness at Westminster County Court in Loudon recently, “are not good judges of violins. They go by the tone.” “Count Hannibal,” the Asehe-Brayton production in London, seems destined to haje. a good Jim., They are. playing it eight times a week to full houses. Henry Arthur Jones, in his one-act

,zsketeh.--“Fa'H in, Rookies.” produced recently at the’Alhambra Music Hall. Londbh? hasSflisclosed strong views in favour of military training as a panacea for the jfuhemployS’bles.” fit is a superficial sketch - oil popular lines, and not. likely to'add fresh’laurels to the fanie’of the dramatist. Wirth’s huge; circus and menagerie opened a Dominion tour at the Bluff on Monday lasts The present combination is sail! tb bejme of the’strongest that the Messrs. Wirth has ever brought to New - Zealand. The circus proper programme includes quite a host of new performers, whilst the menagerie has been restocked by a number of rare and valuable animals. r ~ - - The new-theat-ve which Mr. H. B. Irving proposed to build near Leicester Square will probably be” completed in little more than a year’s time, when Mr. Irving will open it with a Shakespearean play on his return from Australia, As already stated, it will be called the Irving Theatre. ft will accommodate 2000 people. It appears' unlikely that “Salvation Nell” will be brought to New Zealand by the Williamson Dramatic Company, which opens in Christchurch on Boxing Night, and is due in Auckland later on. It "is probable a lot of newspaper controversy on the play—an admittedly extraordinary one— is hereby avoided. There are,' moreover,' compensations, for “Arms' find the Man,” the first of Bernard Shaw’s plays to be produced (professionally) in New Zealand, will be included in the repertoire. The school of “Shavian” enthusiasts in the Dominion (and connected with the Press) is now exceedingly strong; and, as in company with G.B;'S., they understand the value of artistic “booming,” we are likely to hear a good deal ol the play before we see it, while its success, if anyway reasonably acted, is assured. ■'Where's your automobile ?i’ ‘•■■Traded it off,” replied s’. M. Cluiggins. ‘'What for?” “One of these, street pianos. When I stand in front of it and turn the crank i’lfat least have the satisfaction of heading a tune.”—‘ Judge.”