AUSTRALIAN HAPPENINGS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XX, Issue 1123, 19 October 1911, Page 18

AUSTRALIAN HAPPENINGS.

(From Our Melbourne and Sydney Correspondents. >

New Zealand playgoers will be glad to ’earn that Mr. H. B. Irving is to shortly enter upon a comprehensive tfitir of the Dominion. The famous actor and his wife (Miss Dorothea Baird), will be supported by the whole of their London Company, and the pieces will be staged exactly as in Sydney and Melbourne. The most notable plays in the repertoire will be presented. .Playgoers in New Zealand will be able to witness the performances of an actor, whose advent in this parf of the world had been looked forward to for years, and who is now in the prime of his powers. Mr Irving and his company will appear in ' Adelaide before entering upon the New Zealand tour.

H. B. Irving is a stickler for accuracy in detail in his productions. Everything must be in keeping with the atmosphere and spirit of the piece and to achieve this end the famous actor will go to any amount of trouble. This is seen in “Louis XI,” in which Mr Irving has reduced historical accuracy to a fine art, so much so, indeed, that he secured some magnificent old armour of the period, and a number of swords and other

weapons, which have an interesting history, and are of great value.

The arrival in Melbourne of some of the principals of “The Swiss Express’’ Company, which is to open in Melbourne under the Williamson, Clarke, and Meynell regime, is a practical indication of the closeness of the “laughing season” soon to be initiated. Three of the prominent members of the Company arrived from London last Monday by the Orsova, these being Miss Connie Emerald, Miss Edith Jeffries, and Miss Molly Geary. Altogether the London contingent will total about sixteen people, and a troupe of dancers will be included in the attractions of the performance. ....

Mabel Graham, who makes a dainty Mascha in “The Chocolate Soldier,”

was for some time associated with the D’Oyley Carte Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Co. Strangely enough, most of the principals of the “Chocolate Soldier” company in Melbourne have gained their early training in this thorough school. Amongst many roles in which she has appeared are Lady Psyche in “Princess Ida,” Josephine in “ Pinafore,” Yum Yum in “The Mikado,” Phyllis in “lolanthe,” Casilda in “The Gondoliers,’ the last-mentioned part being played by her for over five years.

There has been another revival in London of “The Blue Bird,” which is to take flight to Australia next year, when the Williamson, Clarke and Meynell firm will present Maeterlinck’s remarkable play with the original English company.

One of the most successful of novelists (who has not read “The Broken Road,” “The Four Feathers,” or “Miranda of the Balcony”?), A. E. W. Mason, in “The Witness for the Defence,” has shown that his powers are as strongly developed in the direction of play-writing as in the conception of stories that hold one

strongly and have a permanent place in the world of books. This play, in which Ethel Irving, the greatest, of English actresses, will open her season in Adelaide on the 21st, had a phenomenal run in London, and has just been translated into French, Italian, and German, for production in those countries. Opening in the weird semi-darkness of a tent on a lonely plain in India, the action is transferred to England, but never does the interest lessen. It is, indeed, intensified, as the play progresses by a fascinating element of mystery-