HIS MAJESTY’S THEATRE.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XV, Issue 894, 25 April 1907, Page 16

HIS MAJESTY’S THEATRE.

THE HOLLOWAY COMPANY. “THE COLLEEN BAWN.” Afer giving great satisfaction with “Two Little Vagabonds,” the Holloway Company made another change on Friday evening, when the ever-green “Colleen Bawn” was staged. Very ample proof was afforded that this sterling play had lost none of its popularity, for the action of the plot was followed throughout with close attention, the best points being received with hearty applause. Miss Beatrice Holloway of course essayed the role of Eily O’Connor, and a very and winsome Co.leen she made. Mr Robert Inman met all the requirements of the part of Hardress Cregan, Mr J. P. O’Neill was we.” cast as the rollicking Myles-Na-Coppaleen, Mr Cass made an effective Kyrle Daly. Mr Jefferson Tait earned the execration of ‘‘the gods” as Corrigan, the pettifogging attorney, Mi Harry Douglas gave a capital sketch of Danny Mann, the hunchback, and all the other characters were well filled, while the scenery left nothing to be desired. “WHY WOMAN SINS.” On Monday the Holloway Company commenced the last week of their season with the four-act drama, writ.en by W. P. Sheen and F. S. Jennings, “Why Woman Sins.” It is full of exciting situations and the interest is not allowed to flag from start to finish. The lines on which it is cast are somewhat conventional, the hero and heroine being as usual worried from the outlet by the machinations of the villain, who is ultimately confounded, and the true love allowed to run its course. Miss Beatrice Holloway made a charming Nell Desmond, with whom ’.he audience were entirely in sympathy from the outset. Mr Robert Inman was cast for Lieut. Harry Maxwell, R.N., who is in love with Nell, and he gave a capable representation. Mr Godfrey Cass, as usual, was entirely convincing as Cecil Spencer, his work all through being of the best. Mr Harry Douglas was decidedly good as Jim Rainbird, a ne’er-do-well. Miss Rosa Conroy proved particularly effective as Ida Valletta. Mr Wilton Welch was responsible for a good deal of merriment as Sam Spavins, a groom, in which he was assisted by Mr J. P. O’Neill as Orlando Whiffles. All the other members of a very long cast did all that was required of them, the play running very smoothly throughout.

“BLEAK HOUSE.”

On Wednesday evening was staged (too late for review in this issue), a dramatisation of Charles Dicken’s “Bleak

House.” Miss Holloway apparently has an affection of boy parts. Her Dick in “Two Li.tie Vagabonds” is one of her very finest characters, while as Jo in the present piece Miss Holloway fairly excels herself. The pathos of the part is brought out in a manner reminiscent of Jenny Lee herself. Lovers of Dickens, and their name is legion, should certainly pay His Majesty’s a visit. The season- will be brought to a close with the emotional drama “Under Remand,” which will be produced on Friday and Saturday. On Monday the Company will sail for Sydney by the s.s. Waikare.

“THE MIDNIGHT WEDDING.”

Harcourt Bea Ay’s reappearance, together with the return of Messrs Meyned and Gunn s “Fatal Wedding” Company in support, is already causing universal excitement in theatrical circles, and the booking for the Company’s brief season of six nights only promises to be particularly heavy. “The Midnight Wedding” is announced for four nights and a matinee on Wednesday, May ist, and the most popu.ar piny in Australia, the famous musical drama “The Fatal Wedding,” is set down for the two concluding nights of the season. The story bristles with vital interest, some idea of which may be gieaned from the following :— That extraordinary scene in the first act, where Princess Astrea Von Strelsburg is married at midnight in the private chapel of her ancestral castle to the nameless adventurer, who there steals in covering sanctuary from his foes, arrests attention straightaway, which subsequent developments only enchain the more completely. Ic seems a mad, reckless act on her part, but it is the only way to defeat the cruel provisions of her dead father’s will, which bade her marry, within a certain time, a wealthy officer in her brother’s regiment she cordially detests, ar else seek a living death within a convent walls. And while she is praying for guidance before the taper-lighted altar, with the moonbeams flickering through the stained glass window of the sacred hall, this unexpected means of escape presents itself to her priest and teacher. He has done nothing of which to be ashamed—merely driven his sword in a square-fought duel though the body of the brother officer who spoke sneeringly of his origin, and applied to him a term of contempt, which was an outrage to his dead mother’s womanhood. But the Crown Prince’s edict against duelling is stern indeed, and that’s why he flees from military justice, and incidentally agrees to render the service asked of him by the priest for the woman, the shelter of whose chapel he craves just for a single night.. Unfortunately the man he lias nearly killed happens to be her brother, and for the time being that knowledge creates a strong repulsion of feeling against the unknown who has just given her his name. But the brother recovers, only to add his f' r, contemptible reasons of his own, to -hose of the suitor, whose advances she has already scornfully rejected. He is a gambler and spendthrift, has squandered not only his fortune, but her own, at the gaming tables and on the turf, and Von Scarsbruck’s price for his financial rehabi’itation is the hand of his sister in marriage. Space precludes any attempt to trace the story to its climax, but it gathers fresh dramatic impetus with every scene. “The Midnight Wedding” is just such a play as the public love. It is interesting from the moment the curtain goes up till it falls on the final scene. Humour it has in full measure —broad, ro'icking humour, which compels laughter—yet it is not allowed to check the action of the play, and is kent subordinate to the chief interest, which centres in the fortunes of “Paul Valmar, Swordmaster of the Red Hussars,” and “Princess Astrea von Strelsburg.” An atmosphere of romance surrounds them, they live in the enchanted rea'm of faith unshakable of love stronger than death, and they move forward to their destiny amid the clink of spurs, the dank of the scabbard, and the clash of steel, and in the end go out into a new life far away from Savonia. The Company will arrive from Christchurch by the Takapuna on Sunday next.

THE ANDREW MACK SEASON.

Mr Andrew Mack’s season at His Majesty’s will commence on May 6. Probably the opening production will be that charming Irish love idyll “Tom Moore,” full particulars of which have already been given in these columns. In it Mr Mack is said to be at his best, and his season is being looked forward to with considerable interest by Aucklanders. Mr Bert Royle is expected here very shortly to arrange details.