“ CLAUDIAN.”

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVI, Issue 938, 27 February 1908, Page 17

“ CLAUDIAN.”

The Julius Knight Company has "been playing Wilson Barrett’s old favourite, “ Claudian,” in Sydney. The plot is as follows: —

“Be young for ever, through the centuries— See generations born and age and die, And all who flattered, served, and loved thee, dust—but thou live on.” This is the curse pronounced in the prologue of “ Claudian” by Holy Clement, the hermit, who is stabbed while trying to save the slave-wife of a sculptor from the powerful proifligate of Byzantium in the fourth century. In the play, a hundred years later, Claudian still walks the earth —a man who longs for death, and who is doomed to live. The curse is upon him. Those who love him are afflicted, and those whom he loves perish. Claudian is a sort of Flying Dutchman, and, like the hero of the Wagnerian music-drama, he is saved in the end by the love of a good woman. Almida, the good woman of the p ay, is drawn from her lover, Agasil, only to be stricken with blindness. When the blind Almida declares her love in Claudian’s palace the earth trembles and the building

falls to ruins. Saved from the earthquake with Almida, the cursed one, standing amid the ruins, announces that his end -is approaching —death that he has’ponged for has come at last.' With the' curse lifted Claudian faces death: with: a happy heart. Almida, whose /sight has been restored (presumably /by the earthquake), turns’' affectionately : to the honest Agasil, and Claudian joins the hands of the-lovers as he falls dead. Julius Knight, in the Marcus Superbus-like role of Claudian, is said to have made a great hit.

Mr Horace Nightinga’e, who for the last five years has been associated with the Tay or-Carrington Company is shortly severing his connection with that organisation. He contemplates resting for a few weeks and has a lucrative engagement in view.

’Tis not improbable that the Auckland district, including the city, will shortly be visited by Mr Edmund Montgomery’s New Pictures and Entertainers, now in their eleventh year of organisation. Successful seasons have just been concluded in Dunedin, Christchurch, and Wellington, and the company is now at the Wanganui Opera House. The entertainers advertised to appear are Harry Hall, Elsie Hargood, Hilda Hargood and Fred Restieaux (musical director). The Staff includes Bert Gilbert (electrician), Lawrence Redwood (mechanist), J. Matheson (business representative), and J. E. Petherick (advance manager).

Madame Clara Butt, Mr Kennerley Rumford and concert party will visit Palmerston North, Wanganui, Napier, etc., till March 3rd, when two farewell concerts will be given in Wellington.

Miss Rosina Buckmann will play the leading female ro’e in ‘‘ Erminie,” which is to be produced by the Dunedin Amateur Operatic Society at an early date.

A step-dancing match for £5O a side was recently arranged between Little Miss Madge McCalla, the girl “ babe ” in the Birmingham Alexandra pantomime, and Miss Edna Dobree, a; youthful coloured exponent of the terpsichorean art from New Orleans.

Madame Clara Butt and Mr Kennerley Rumford will, give concerts in Sydney , between 14th and 21st March. As originally arranged, . the great contralto was to give 25 concerts in this part of-the world. Seventy-five will be the number when the tour closes.

When the late Lord Kelvin was completing his deep-sea sounding machine, a brother scientist enquired the use of a huge coil of piano wire. “ For sounding,” replied the scholar. “What note?” facetiously added the former. “ The deep C,” replied his lordship, with a merry twinkle in his mathematica 1 and keen sharp eye.

Blanche Bates, the talented American actress, has been seen in “ The Girl of the Golden West ” somewhat more than 700 times. Before the Belasco drama of ’4.0 is finally taken off, she will have p ayed the part of Minnie Smith oftener than she did that of Yo-San in “ The Darling of the Gods,” and in that her appearances numbered more than

An actor who recently was “ taken ” while on the stage by a cinematograph was greatly pleased with the result. Talk-

ing about it to a prominent dramatic critic, he said : “It was the most extraordinary experience I ever went through —- actua ly to see myself acting.” “ Now,” replied the critic, “ you will understand what we have to put up with.”