MISS VIOLET LORAINE.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, 26 June 1913, Page 21

MISS VIOLET LORAINE.

THE PRINCIPAL PANTOMIME “BOY.” That the principal boy must be a girl is an axiom in pantomime lore the wide world over. A threat has been hanging over some of the London houses to break through the traditions and originate the natural order of things, but it is hardly likely to be given general effect to. Cid customs die hard, and pantomime lovers will not forego their principal girl, or, rather, boy, without a word. Thanks to J. C. Williamson, we have had some charming artistes in that line. But there is none more irresistible than Miss Violet Loraine. Tall and graceful, handsome and vivacious, she is the beau ideal of the principal “boy,” and being blest with a good voice as well, she is specially gifted for her role. “I think I was meant to be a boy,” she said, laughingly. “I just love the part. When I come on I feel that I could dash around the stage in the sheer exuberance of living. It is wonderful what a change it makes in a woman to get into sensible garments. I never feel so much at ease as I do in the principal boy’s clothes. If women were to adopt a more rational and comfortable dress I’m sure they would become brighter, more broad-minded, and more active. I would like to promote a society for the rationalisation of women’s dress.” Miss Loraine holds the record of having been the youngest principal boy at Drury Lane Theatre, London, and in Glasgow. When Mr Arthur Collins, of Drury Lane, learned that Miss Loraine bad been engaged for Australia by J. C. Williamson, he approached her and asked her if she could stay. This being impossible, as the contract was signed, Mr Collins said that if he could not have Miss Loraine for principal boy for that year’s pantomime he would not have one at all. The result is that in the Christmas show, “Beauty and the Beast,” the principal boy part was being played this time by a man. Miss Loraine will, however, be “boy” in the pantomime of 1913. “Did you hear how I attained boxing fame?” asked the actress. “One night at Drury Lane Theatre last Christmas, in the ‘Hop o’ My. Thumb’ pantomime, an intoxicated stage hand came into my dressing room by mistake, and refused to leave. So I took him gently but firmly by the arm, and led him out to the stage manager.”

“The papers got hold of the wrong end of the story somehow,” said Miss Loraine, “for the next morning there were most sensational articles telling how I had fought the man, who attacked me with his fists, and that I had stood up to him in a plucky fight and knocked him out with an ‘upper cut,’ which took him clean off his feet! The American correspondents

in London cabled a similar story to their papers across the Atlantic, and for some time afterwards 1 was treated with marked deference wherever I went! Such is fame!” Miss Violet Loraine makes the acquaintance of Auckland theatre-goers at His Majesty’s this evening. That they, like Australia and London, will be swayed by her fascinating personality is a foregone conclusion.