AUSTRALIAN HAPPENINGS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XX, Issue 1124, 26 October 1911, Page 19

AUSTRALIAN HAPPENINGS.

(Fmm Our Sydney and Melbourne Correspondents j

“The Girl in the Train” will be staged at the Criterion Theatre, Sydney, on Saturday, November 4th, and is now being actively rehearsed by Mr. E. T. Steyne. Florence Young will appear in the name-part, and a notable cast will include Jack Cannot, who will have the opportunity to display his vocal and acting ability in musical comedy; W. S. Percy, who has a fine part; and a well known English tenor. Mr. Cannot and the new tenor studied singing under the same teacher prior to going on the stage.

“The Sorrows of Satan ’ was nr° sented at The King’s Theatre, Melbourne, on Saturday last before an enormous audience which evinced exceptional interest in the production on account of its being a new version of Miss Marie Corelli’s famous novel written by the popular and distinguished actor, Mr. Roy Redgrave, who is a member of the William Anderson Company, and played the leading part in the play, “Prince Lucio Rimanez.”

When H. B. Irving produced “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” in London last year, the production was widely discussed as one of the most remarkable of the last few years. Mr. Irving’s gi x 'ts as a character actor are enhanced and made more potent in this play by his deep study of criminology, and psychology. He presents the dual personality of Jekyll and Hyde so completely in every detail, so realistic in every characteristic, that London cri-

tics marvelled, and expressed the opinion that Mr. Irving 'must, have studied it from real life. For example, a looted brain specialist wk nessed the jperforman.ee on the opening night, and according to him the chief sign of an unbalanced mind is the impossibility of placing the hand flat on the table, with the palm upturned, so that the fingers are more or less evenly divided. He commented that in H. B. Irving’s Jekyll, the fingers lie evenly; in his Hyde they are twisted and cramped. “I gather that he knew nothing of these medical proofs,” said the specialist. “He just felt them.”

A huge case was opened at the Theatre Royal, Melbourne, the otner day, and was found to be the omnibus for “The Swiss Express,” the panto.-drama to be staged at the Princess Theatre shortly by J. C. Williamson, Clarke asd Meynell. It was set up, and the stage staff got to work on it. In the midst of the operation the whole affair collapsed, to the amazement of those who did not know that it was a trick ’bus, and tnar it is intended to “subside suddenly,” when called upon to do so! There are a number of features in “The Swiss Express,” which make it different to any other dramatic production seen here before.

Alter the first performance of “La Tosca” in Australia, Signori Angelini and Sacerdote, the conductor and deputy conductor of the Melba grand opera season, sent a cablegram jointly to the composer, Puccini, telling him of the remarkable enthusiasm with which his opera was received.

A North Queenslander was a visitor to the grand opera last week, when Madame Melba sang Marguerite in “Faust.” He had come all the way from the Gulf of Carpentaria to hear the diva sing. For over a week he had waited for Madame Melba to recover from her attack of bronchitis, and on the night she appeared the house was so crowded that the programmes gave out. It so happened that the Queenslander found himself without a programme, whereat his distress was genuinely great. “I will have nothing to show them when I return that I heard Melba sing," ne said to the Press agent of the season. That official told him he would endeavour to remedy that. He got one of the house programmes, took it behind the scenes, and got every member of the cast of “Faust,” including Madame Melba herself to sign their names over the printed names of the characters, and handed it to the sunburnt Australian from the tropics.