IN PERSONAL TOUCH.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XX, Issue 1124, 26 October 1911, Page 17

IN PERSONAL TOUCH.

Mr. G. D. Portus, who is managing Rickards’ Vaudeville Company, has received many congratulations on the occasion of his marriage. His bride, too, has numerous friends in New Zealand, who will join us in wishing them all good fortune.

“The Woman in the Case” Compony concluded their Auckland season on Saturday blight In /‘A Fool There Was.” On Monday they journeyed to Hamilton, where they gave a highly successful performance, picking up the Main Trunk train in the early hours of the morning, and arriving here on Tuesday at 7 a.m. Thence they proceeded by the Tarawera to Gisborne, where they play a threenights’ season.

“The Gay Gordons” are a big success down here,” writes Mr. Leo. D. Chateau from Dunedin. “They are receiving receptions and ‘send-offs’ everywhere.,- There is no question aoout their popularity. They ingratiate themselves everywhere.”

“The Mousme” is-the name of the successor to “The Arcadians” at the Shaftesbury Theatre, London. The new piece has a Japanese setting, and i*g written by Messrs) Courtneidge and Thompson. It will be duly produced in Australia by the Wiliamson management.

Messrs John Fuller and Sons have opened a fiim-hirmg department in Sydney.

Tom Uhe ' inimitable Peter Doody in “The Arcadians” will appear in the next pantomime.

It is reported that Miss Ola Humphreys discovered that the Egyptian Prince whom she wedded, and from

whom she is now seeking a divorce after six months of married life, was originally a slave in Cairo. In the marriage certificate ; Hassan set feut that his father “Prince of the Ottoman Empire.” . .

It is stated that the booking for the Melba Grand Opera Company during the big racing week in Sydney represented more money than has ever been taken in a Sydney theatre over a similar period.

Mr. J. .T. Montague (father of the Auckland Shakespeare Society), and a picked team of members of the said society, are in Wellington just now, and gave their first (reading, Twelfth Night” on Monday to an appreciative audience. The principal readers were: Mrs. Frank Turner, Mrs. McCallum, Miss Zoe Bartley, Mr. Montague, Rev. W. Jellie, Mr. Laurie Abrahams, and Mr. Alan McHiwain.

“I have long cherished an idea that Shakespeare is neither dead nor uninteresting (said Mr. Montague to a Wellington interviewer). you may think me mad, but by this time I am more than ever confirmed in my opinion. The Auckland Shakespeare Society has been an extraordinary success from its initiation ten years ago.

ft has given frequent public readings, and always the hall has been filled. Since it started, Shakespeare societies have sprung up all over the place. Oui’ good fortune may be due to the fact that we have made a direct appeal to the public, rather than to fastidious amateurs of Shakespeare. r rhe public has responded ’so heartily that I have never once found it necessary to solicit a subscription. People have come and gone away pleased. They have said in their hearts, ‘Most remarkable thing, but this chap Shakespeare seems to have something in him after all!’.”

“The Perplexed Husband” is a woman’s rights play that is having a hearing at Home just now. It’s enjoyment, of course, off whether the audience are suffragettes or non-suffragettes.

George Marlow Ltd now . control 3 theatres —the Adelphi in Sydney, the largest in Australia; the Princess’s in Melbourne, and the King’s in Fremantle, W.A-. ’ ’

Miss Maggie Moore and Mr H. R. Roberts have just concluded a dramatic season in Bendigo which proved a conspicious success. The three productions presented by the talented company met with the keenest appreciation of Bendigo playgoers. Miss Maggie Moore had sheaves of floral emblems presented her.