Greenroom Gossip.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XX, Issue 1118, 14 September 1911, Page 17

Greenroom Gossip.

“Our Miss Gibbs’” Provincial Tour..

At the conclusion of a 12 nights Auckland season, “Our Miss Gibbs,” presented by Mr. J. C. Williamson’s Royal Comic Opera Company, will do the customary Provincial tour, the dates of playing being as follows:— New Plymouth, September 25, 26;’ Stratford, 'September 27; Eltham, September 28; Hawera, Septembei’ 29; Wanganui, September 30, October 2; Palmerston North, October 3 and 4; Waipawa, October 5; Hastings, October 6; Napier, October 7 and 9; Masterton, October 10. The box plans will be opened in each town four days before the first performance.

The Drop Scene at His Majesty’s. Alas for the lost canons of good taste and artistic judgment! A new drop scene, ghastly in its colouring, atrocious in its commercialism, and galling in its vexatious reminders of the vendors of all sorts of things the theatregoer wishes to forget, during the few brief hours he spends in pleasure, has made its appearance at His Majesty’s. It is bad enough to have to wade through a programme chock-a-block with advertisements, without also being compelled to undergo the further ordeal when facing a drop scene that fairly bristles with the same sort of thing, painted in all the colours of the rainbow, without the least regard being paid to their harmonious blending, or to the susceptibilities of the audience. The new drop-scene at His Majesty’s Theatre,. Auckland, is an outrage upon good taste, and such an unnecessary infliction upon the feelings of theatregoers as to be without justification. It might be tolerated in a fifth rate Music Hall, or at the sixpenny Picture shows, but in a house of entertainment devoted almost exclusively to first-class and artistic productions, it is wholly out of place. The visiting companies who hire the theatre from time to time, should unite in entering a decided protest with the public against the scene being allowed to remain.

“The Woman in the Case.”

New Zealand playgoers will shortly have the opportunity of seeing a fine production of “The Woman in the Case,” which the J. C. WilliamsonClarke and Meynell amalgamated firms are sending over from Australia. This piece was written by the famousAmerican dramatist, Clyde Fitch, and was his biggest success. Up to thetime of his death he drew in royalties over £70,000 from it. It has a. remarkable motif, ingeniously carried out, involving the intrigue of an unscrupulous woman who seeks revengeby embroiling the victim of her hatred in a charge of the murder of his best friend. There is a thrilling third act, in which the wife of the accused extorts from the adventuress the confession that Julian Rolfe has not been murdered, but had shot himself. This is one of the most sensational scenes ever reproduced on the stage. On the first night of the production in Melbourne the audience rose to their feet and cheered and cheered until the curtain had been raised a dozen times. Mabel Trevor appears as the devoted wife.