The Bland Holt's

New Zealand Illustrated Magazine, Volume 1, Issue 6, 1 March 1900, Page 79

The Bland Holt's

What a hold melodrama luis upon tho public ! The tour of tho Bland Holt Company through

New Zealand has been one continued triumph. From Invercjirgill to Aucklund, and hack again, the story is the same. Packed houses night after night. And Mr. Bland Holt deserves all the success he meets with, for he stages all his productions in admirable style. Right clown to the smallest detail everything must be correct, and it is so. Then Mr. Bland Holt keeps the colonial pnblic abreast with the times. Ah soon as a play proves an attraction in London, the

cable is used and the rights for the colonies are secured. With Mr. Arthur Shirley's "The Absent-Minded Beggar," Mr. Holt

was very expeditious. By cable came the author's brief description of the various scenes, and at once Mr. John Brunton, the clever scenic artist of the Company, set about the work, and in a few weeks all was ready for the first production in New Zealand. Mr. and Mrs. Bland Holt, of course, are very popular members of the Company. They provide the relief so nouessary with some of their lurid melodramas, and as low comedians they are excellent. Miss Harrie Ireland, who plays the wicked woman and the injured maiden with equal skill, is one of the most graceful actresses upon the colonial stage. Mr. Walter E. Baker is a hero whom all delight in, and in Mr. Arthur Styan the Company possesses a stage villain as accomplished as he is disagreeable in the characters he represents.