OPERA HOUSE.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XII, Issue 704, 3 September 1903, Page 16

OPERA HOUSE.

THE WOODS-WILLIAMSON COMPANY. This Company opened last week in that perennial favourite, “Hands Across the Sea,” and scored a pronounced success. The story has suffered some modification at the hands of these latest exponents, but the familiar lines of the

plot are adhered to, and the play proved to be very enjoyable. Mr Woods made a fresh and boisterous Jack Dudley, and Miss Williamson as the heroine, Lilian Melford, played with a sweetness and grace that instantly took the sympathies of the audience. The part of the villain, Dick Melford, was exceptionally well taken by Mr A. W. Boothman, a capable actor of the old school, and the other parts were efficiently filled by Messrs Knight, Hassell, Beaumont, Lindon, Buckler, Penley, Misses Carleon, Emery, and the remaining (members of a strong company.

On Saturday night the Company staged “The Gates of Bondage,” a fine dramatisation by Miss Williamson of Hall Caine’s most famous novel “The Deemster.” In this the special merits of principals and company were shown to much greater advantage than in the initial play. Mr Woods gave a strong and finely artistic conception of Dan Mylrea. It was a consistently brilliant piece of acting from first to last, and at times rose to the point of grandeur. In the duel scene and in the fit of despair on the lonely rock he was thrillingusing the word in its best sense—while in the love passages he displayed a tenderness that was touching in the extreme. Miss Williamson’s Mona is an exquisite study of a woman whose life is dominated by the master passion, and •from which all the brightness is apparently robbed. Miss Williamson’s face and voice are naturally adapted to the representation of pathos, and she throws herself into her work with an abandon? that is one of the highest manifestations of art. Nothing better than the passages between Dan and Mona has been seen on the Auckland stage for many a day. The other characters are capably filled. Mr Boothman as the Bishop, Mr Buckler as the Deemster, Mr Beaumont as Ewan, Mr Hassell as Jarvis Kerrish, Mr Linden as Homny Be Mr Knight as Davy Rayle, Miss Carleon as Polly, Miss Mascotte as Blind Kerry, are all in their several ways excellent, and provided adequate support for the principals. The scenery is more than usually good, some of the sets being worthy of all praise. The orchestra, too, under Mr Burke, renders valuable service.