THE POLLARDS IN AFRICA.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XII, Issue 721, 31 December 1903, Page 19

THE POLLARDS IN AFRICA.

I lake the following from the Durban “Advertiser,” of the 2nd November It is some time since this delightful little classic; of comic opera (“The Geisha”) was placed before a Durban audience, and it was partly attributable to that fact, perhaps, that the accommodation resources of the Theatre Royal had such a strain put upon them on Saturday night. There has probably been no light opera, not excepting even the Gilbert and Sullivan series, which holds such a place in the minds of English people, whether at Home or abroad, as “The Geisha.” At Home it is a perennial favourite, and abroad the fascinating little opera never fails to exercise its charm wherever there is a score book and a few voices. It is something quite exceptional, however, to find “ The Geisha” done such full justice to as was rendered it by the Australian Comic Opera Company, which is to be very cordially congratulated upon the thoroughness, the taste, and the all-round finish Which characterised the presentation of this masterpiece of lyrical writing. First and foremost among the excellences of the performance was the “Mimosa” of Miss Jessie Ramsay. It is seldom that we have seen the part filled with greater charm than by Miss Ramsay. She possesses, to a very noteworthy degree, every one of the qualifications necessary to the adequate performance of the chief Geisha’s exacting part—a sympathetic voice of great, delicacy, and large compass, considerable personal attraction. . and that natural spontaneity and absence of sophistication which makes “O Mimosa San” such a charming little person, and one of the most admired cf English stage personalities. Miss Ramsay performed most cleverly and well, and the “Goldfish” song could not have been better done by many of her famous English contemporaries. Mr W. S. Percy’s “Wun Hi” was another satisfactory piece of work, and Mr Percy had full scope for his natural abilities as a comedian, and used his opportunities wet. The part of “Molly Seamore” was harfilv suited to Miss Wilmot Karkeek,

who was well placed in the “Gay Parisienne” and the “Messenger Boy,” but we think should have been otherwise cast in the “Geisha.” Miss Karkeek has peculiar gifts of her own, which, however, are- thrown away in a pari such as that of “Molly Seamore.” The orchestra contributed greatly to the effective rendering of the piece, and the accompaniment to “Star of my Soul” was excellent.

THE SANFORD AMERICAN PLAYERS

Mr M. B. Curtis, manager of the Sanford Company of American Players, has been having a busy time of late preparing for the advent of the Co. The artistic American posters displayed round the city have attracted a great deal of attention. Mr Sanford and the members of the Company, together with all the scenery for the extensive repertoire of dramas, arrived by the Ventura on Monday, from Honolulu, and at once proceeded on to New Plymouth by the Takapuna- This arranp;emen»t was rendered necessary owing to Mr Curtis’ inability to secure holiday dates at either of the Auckland houses. The Company opens at New Plymouth to-night for a week’s Season, and Wanganui follows, after which the Company returns to Auckland, for a season of several weeks.

Mr Thomas Kingston appeared in ’A Marriage of Convenience ” at the command performance at Sandringham last month. * * * ♦ In the course of a case heard in the Chancery Division, Longon, recently, it transpired that a banjoist who performed at Margate during the summer season of 1902 made a net profit of £3OO. Con- 1 s-idering the shortness of the summer season the result, cannot be considered so bad. The walking craze is going to extraordinary lengths in Paris. The other day a Song Writers’ Walk was organised. The conditions were simple. Each competitor had to walk a certain distance and compose a song upon the way. According to “ The Stage ” Messrs Liebier, of America, have purchased the rights of Gugenheim and Le Faure’s Gymnase play. “ L’Epare,” in which Kyrle Bellow will play the part of General Faverney. The English rights have been acquired by Miss Olga Nethersole.

Mr E. H. Sothern appeared in ten plays in one day at the new Lyceum Theatre, New York, on November 13, for the benefit of the Actorsi’ Home. Mr Sothern, Miss Lof tut, and other members of the company performed an act from each of the ten principal pieces in, which Mr Sothern has appeared in the past under Mr Daniel Ftohman’s management at the old Lyceum.

Mr George Musgrove and Miss Nellie Stewart were passengers by the Sonoma, which passed through Auckland on Christmas Day. They will return about the middle of the year.

“ The Girl from Kay’s. ” has been staged in New York. The critics were down heavily on its blueness. One paper sums it up as “ pure indigo dye from start to finish.”

Mr Chas. Faning writes from London by the latest mail : “We have just concluded a fine tour of Scotland. We remain in London until the end of the month, then go into the provinces until Xmas, when we open in London again. I am booked up to the end of t 905, also have a little of 190 G booked. It seems strange booking so far ahead, but it is the custom over here. I believe I omitted to tell you in my last I work all ‘white ’ face ; no more black for me. I go 20 per cent, better in white face in this country than I did working black in Australia. I am gaining a llrst-class footfing here, so my return to Aiisc.ri.lia is ‘off’ for a while rt least Lennon, Hyman and Lennon return for a trip in March, also Mrs Hyman and May Marlow. Johnny Cowan is working in* a sketch of Tom Costello’s. Altro, the jugjgler, was working at one of the halls I work at last week (Hammersmith). There is a good sprinkling of Australians over here, and all holding their own. We come across them every once in a while. Bovis Bros., Alma Grey, Anderson Sisters, Lennon, Hyman and Lermon, Jake Friedman, Florrie Esdaile, and your humble all working two halls this week. These are just what I’ve met in town ; there might be morel. .Sorry I haven’t come across my old boss over here (Mr Hamilton Hill is ‘starring’ in the provinces. I believe his wife (Beany Gallettly, one time), now one of the ‘Oswell’ Sisters, are a first-

class act and attraction. There are a lot of turns in Australia that would le sure successes over here. The wife and little daughter are contemplating another trip to America after the Winter is over. On their return this time the daugh er goes into school. Mrs F. ioins in kindest wishes to all our Australian friends. ”

English artists in Australia will regret to learn that Mr Comerford, of the Lordon “Stage,” met with a fatal accident recently. Late in the afternoon, when, after the Lord Mayor’s Procession, there was more than the usual dangerous congestion of traffic in the Strand at the Wellington-street corner, Mr Comerford was knocked down by a market cart ai' run over, suffering most severe internal injuries. He was stepping from the pa i. to the street at the moment, and had no time to escape the heavy cart, which was drawn by two horses. Mr

was taken at once to Charing CrosHospital and laid in the Albert Edward Ward. But his injuries were beyond all medical skill, and he died at n o’clock the same evening. He had intervals of consciousness, and Mrs Comerford, who had been summoned, was able to be present before the end, and to speak with her husband. The late Mr Charles L. Carson founded “The Stage” with Mr Comerford, who was part proprietor with him, and since, the beginning of 190.1 Mr Comerford had acted as editor of the paper.

This yarn is taken from a London paper : Mr G.. 11. Snazelle, when giving his entertainment in the Fiji Islands, had one night amongst his receipts four sucking pigs, 800 cocoanuts, 1000 moonstones, 40 pearls, 23 model canoes,, 200 yards of native cloth, 42 Fiji costumes, three whalers' teeth, hundreds of shark&i’ teeth, two cartloads of beautiful coral, spears,, knobsticks and knives, native mats and pillows, and seven grog bowls.

In an American melodrama an engine boiler bursts, hurling the villain into space, amidst steam and smoke. The explosive holier has . been made by a Chicago firm, and two of their representatives travel with the company so as to ensure the perfect safety of the “ intricate mechanical arrangements ” which control the sensation. Actors’ salaries should be high on tour, considering the heavy insurance premiums they must have to pay.

A London comic song writer admits an income of £l5OO yearly from the “dots,” and another rattles off an average of six a day, including music and words for 2s c>d a piece.

The proprietor of a theatre in New Zealand recently pacified a touring nianager with the consoling remark, “ You would have done better if you had come eight years ago.” Says the latest ” Era ” : “ Miss Nellie Mortyne, an Australian actress of handsome presence and varied experience, has been giving a finished performance of Mrs Hunter, Miss Lottie Venue’s part, in * The Climbers,’ at the Comedy Theatre. We heartily congratulate this lady upon making such a profound usccess on her first appearance before a London audieme. Miss Mortyne was with Mr Edward Terry throughout his South African tour, and gained much distinction by her artistic impersonations of Ruth Rolt in ' Sweet Lavender,’ Abigail in ‘ Love in Idleness,’ and Madame Fabriquette in 'The Rocket.’ Miss Mortyne’s Australian friends will bo pleased to hear of her success.” According to a London journal, a girl has gone raving mad after witnessing a performance of Svengali in “ Trilby.’* This only goes to show what an actor can do when he makes an effort. The “ Newsletter.” says there are actors in Australia whose work is calculated to make anyone go mad.

According to the evidence taken on commission by the Chief Justice in the Slap-offski-Musgrove suit, before Mr Edward Lauri left Melbourne for Sydney, the comedian believes his value to be enhanced by the fact that “he has the reputation of his father and grandfather to keep up.” To demand the salaries of dur forefathers, in addition to our own, is a pleasant way of paying respect to their memory, and the Chineses tradition of ancestor-worship becomes a dull thingbeside so glorious an idea. But though it may be well enough for Mr Lauri, who possesses a distinguished stage pedigree, to assess his own worth—theatrical or moral—upon this basis, it would be dangerous to apply the principle too widely. v>hat would the neighbours think if Mr Blank or Mrs Dash (supply, your own names, please) were to follow the same social, moral, or financial tendencies as their forgotten grandparents ?

DESCRIBING PLAYS. One or two recent authors’ descriptions have prompted the ‘‘’Times” to some speculations on the nomenclature of plays and the conditions and characteristics which that nomenclature aims at representing specifically. The “Times” notes that Mr Cecil Raleigh calls. “The Flood Tide” a melo-farce, and that Mr J. M. Barrie, following the example of Mr Bernard Shaw with his plays “pleasant and unpleasant,” labels “Little Mary” an “uncomfortable play.” The “Times” has a fling at the critics who object to authors miscalling their plays. “Such objections,” we are told, “are really uncritical, or, at any rate, they are directed to the wrong address, ignoring as they do the fact that the growth of names never keeps pace with the growth of things.” This alleged fact may not be so patent to many as it is to the “Times”; but, without arguing the point, the critics who look for broad accuracy of definition —or at least not for sheer inaccuracy^ — are surely only exercising a reasonable care for the terminology of rhe art. One may grant, with some reservations, that “the old descriptions of tragedy, comedy, and farce have long since been found unsuitable.” They have been found unsuitable, that is, for certain plays. But is that any reason for abusing the terms which exist, or for coining others that are of altogether false value ? We were demurring last week to bo great a neologism as melo-farce for “ The Flood Tide,” and the “ Times’ ” comments on “ the purists who make wry faces over the new name invented by Mr Raleigh ” leave our withers unwrung. As we have said, melo-farce, if it means anything, means farce with music. If the

term were wanted at all —and it is not—it might with some show of fitness be applied to our comic musical plays, such as the Gaiety “ Girl ” series. It is out of place in any relation to a play in which music is only a minor element, and in which—however incongrously by the side of much caricature of melodrama—serious interests and big sensation scenes are sincerely presented. If stage nomenclature cannot classify “ The Flood Tide,” that is not necessarily the affair of the critics, but it it part of their duty not to pass a barbarous misnomer. In the same way they are right in objecting to a farce being called a comedy or a farcical comedy ; a medley with music a musical comedy, or a melodrama a drama, or a drama a tragedy. We hear the roaring fun of the carpenter’s scenes of a melodrama called the comedy element, or the knockabout business of acrobatic drolls a comedy act. If when they protest against these things critics are uncritical, then their occupation is gone indeed. The “ Times ” falls back on the argument that we do not get nowadays pure tragedy, pure comedy, even pure farce. It thinks' that we only enjoy tragedy artificially, as an act of dilettantism. “ Our modern aim is to understand the causes of calamities and to provide against them, not to attribute them to an inscrutable will before which we are to bow down.” As for high comedy, it is essentially cruel and non-sentimental, and therer fore not non-sentimental, and therefore not tolerable. Sheer farce has gone, or is rapidly going, because it “ outrages our modem sense of the realities of life.” These philosophical explanations may or may not be accepted —they proceed we think on very large assumptions'—but they

are no justification for technical error. If it its necessary to describe a play, let it be described by its general drift. It needs no great intelligence to distinguish the broad divisions into which play writing falls. The tragic note is unmistakeable. Melodrama and farce with their exaggerations ought to be in no danger of confusion with drama and comedy. No doubt to bind a dramatist down to hard and fast adherence to a particular form would, as the “ Times ” contends, be to act against some modern tendencies of playwriting. But the “ Times ” admits the »“ colour ” of the play, as it calls it —“ the particular quality of the appeal which the play makes to the spectator’s emotions. A play is grave or gay, realistic or fantastic, ‘pleasant’ or ‘unpleasant,’ ‘comfortable’ or ‘uncomfortable’ — that is to say, it aims at exciting a particular quality of mood in us ; it solicits our laughter or our tears ; addresses itself to our sense of recognition or our sense of wonder ; soothes, us into acquiescence or stimulates us into opposition. In other words, out of the infinity of moods which make up human life it selects a certain set, and this set we call its colours.” Very well. The various sets constitute the several categories of dramatic composition. Take the case of comedy. An author writes a piece in this class. It may not be strict comedy, a comedy by all the academic rules. But it is in the vein of comedy rather than of any other class. There are qualifying terms enough to apply, if they are needed. A comedy may be satirical, light,

iantastic, domestic, sentimental, and 80 forth.

Ihe main position of the “ Times, - ’ then —the argument that in a modern play the categories are so little observed, the sorts so mixed, as to make nomenclature abortive —does not seem tenable. Even more open to question is a second position. The “ Times ” perceives, as has been said, a law of change making the colour schemes —which constitute the categories of drama as already explained—“complex, not to say chaotic.” But it also perceives a second law demanding, in the dramatist, a close attention to form —form being used, in contradistinction to colour, in the sense of structural arrangement. It is said that the same form is common to all classes of play, but no attempt is made to prove this as u sertion. What unity we get in our best modern plays is more in the idea and in the atmosphere in which the idea is evolved than in any rigid construction. Strict form, by which we get the so-call-ed well-made play, is yielding to an altogether freer treatment. If “ Little Mary” is in anything an “uncomfortable” play underlies the pleasure of the audience. Until the last the author withholds his confidence from his auditors; until the last they are groping in the dark as to the old Irish chemist’s cure for the ills of the best people of England and as to the mystery which surrounds his grandchild in applying it. Here a cardinal principle) of construction is; set at naught. Had Mr Barrie been faithful to the strict form from which the “Times” gets the obvious

paradox of its two laws, the audience would have known from the prologue what the old chemist’s treasured volumes; were about, what “little Mary’’ was, and also the precise purpose of the dramatist throughout ‘his successive scenes. Mr Barrie’s way with one of the most cherished conventions is scarcely a tribute to growing strictness in form. It would be a pity, then, on a basis of vagrant philosophical reflections, to abandon our dramatic terminology, or cease to make any attempt to keep it intelligible. We may not have the exactness of the German in these things. Schlegel, for example, was able to use the term “lustspiel” in speaking of the New Comedy of which Euripides was the percursor, to distinguish it from the Old and Middle Comedy of the earlier Grecian schools. But playgoers want roughly to know the kinds of play they are going to see, and our language is sufficiently capable of telling them. And there is even, in emergencies, the conglomerate manner of Polonius, who rattled off the dramatic varieties, from simple tragedy to, “the tragi-cal-comical-historical-pastoral. ’— ( The Stage.”)

Mr Harry Rickards left Marseilles for Australia on his birthday, December 4. The vessel reached Colombo on Friday week, and is due in Sydney on January 9.

If American variety artists are swarming the variety theatres in London, the English article seems to be pushing its wav to the front in Paris. At the Moulin Rouge, which is now one of the best patronised music halls in the Gay Ci the programme recently included no less than nine English performers.