ELLEN TERRY’S VISIT.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1261, 18 June 1914, Page 34

ELLEN TERRY’S VISIT.

A MEMORABLE EVENT

The visit of Miss Ellen Terry to New Zealand marks an epoch in the dramatic annals of the Dominion. That Aucklanders were ready to pay homage to England’s greatest actress was demonstrated at the Town Hall on Thursday and Saturday, when an audience of some 2000 gathered each night. To actually see Ellen Terry in the flesh was to realise the dream of many, and even if robbed of the “pride, pomp and circumstance” attaching to her famous productions with Sir Henry -Irving, one will always retain memories of a gracious, glowing, great-souled woman, who can stir one to the uttermost with her compelling personality, her superb gestures, her wonderful voice. A regal figure in flowing robes of grey, Miss Terry gave her first discourse on the “Pathetic Heroines of Shakespeare,” and after touching on the sublimity of the poet’s mind and revealing the nobility of his thoughts, gave extracts from some of the best-known plays, enhancing them with illustrative acting. One gained faithful and never-to-be-forgotten impressions of the girlish Juliet, the gentle Imogen, the ill-fated Desdemona, the sacrificing Cordelia, the anguished Cleopatra, the highly-strung Ophelia, and the sleep-walking Lady Macbeth. A radiant presence, aglow in scarlet draperies, Miss Terry seemed to create the necessary atmosphere to depict Shakespeare’s Triumphant Heroinels;”. which she treated at her second discourse. The actress eulogised them as possessing mental attributes of a high order, and after urging her hearers to study the poet, gave delightful word pictures of Beatrice, Rosalind, and Portia, bringing home her points with matchless charm and conviction. To hear Miss Terry deliver the “Quality of Mercy” speech was a sheer revelation, and at the conclusion she was accorded a tremendous ovation. Miss Terry has the satisfaction of knowing that she has been the means of inspiring all who heard her with a new interest and a new love of Shakespeare.

Prior to Miss Terry’s appearance, musical items were given by Miss Gladys McDowell, of Melbourne, Miss Nina Forbes (a London song-at-the-piano artist), the Bohemian trio, and Master Frank Paysons. Mr. Joseph Biascheck achieved signal success with his monologue numbers, and had to respond to triple encores.

“Who’s the Lady?” “Who’s the Lady?” the adapted French farce which is to be given in Australia and New Zealand under the Beaumont Smith-Louis Meyer direction, recently had a trying time in Dublin, where the audience pelted the company with oranges and other edibles to demonstrate their disapproval of the moral sentiments of the piece. Louis Meyer was more pleased than annoyed at the disturbance, for, according to him, “the incident has been instrumental in bringing more people to the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, than the building can comfortably accommodate.” These are some of the adjectives hurled at the farce: Naughty, depraved, wicked, salacious, coarse, suggestive, risky, exotic, outrageous, sultry, impudent, audacious, tasteless, unblushing, unpleasant. The most risque incident occurs at the end of the second act. “An actress bursts into the room of a member of the Ministry. The Minister is surprised, and then captivated. The lady, eluding his grasp, has her dress literally pulled off her back. She is left garbed in a cachet corset and a pretty and provocative petticoat. There is some risque fooling. The electric lights are turned out. He lights a candid’! she blows it out. She lights a candle; he blows it out. They both light candles: they both blow .them out. The curtain descends.”