SOUTHERN STAGE NOTES.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1378, 21 September 1916, Page 34

SOUTHERN STAGE NOTES.

(By

“Lorgnette.”)

WELLINGTON, September 18. The Shakespearian season of the Allan Wilkie Company is proving a great success, the seating capacity of the Grand Opera House being fully taxed at each performance. “Hamlet” was played for the first Giree nights, and was followed by three evening performances and a matinee of “The Merchant of Venice.” On Saturday evening the company presented “Twelfth Night,” and on Wednesday “Romeo and Juliet” will

be staged for a three nights’ run. For the last week of the season we are promised “As You Like It” for three nights and probably a matinee, and “Othello” for the last two nights. Owing to an alteration in the running of the ferry steamers the season will close on the Friday instead of the Saturday, as originally intended. Mr. Harold Bowden is expected to arrive in Wellington from Christchurch on Wednesday to comp.ete arrangements lor the forthcoming Dominion tour of Messrs. J. and N. Tait’s “Peg o’ My Heart” Comedy Company. The tour opens at the Grand Opera House on Tuesday, October 10. Miss Sara Allgood, whose first appearance in “Peg o’ My Heart” at the Grand Opera House, Wellington, on Tuesday evening, October 10, will be one of the theatrical events of the year, has a real thoroughbred Irish terr.er, a ginger wire-haired little imp, to play Michael for her in “Peg.” There is another dog in the play, a woolly-coated poodle, and it is said that they do not get on very well together. They have at least one difference in the play proper, and others in the shadows of the wings, where it is difficult to keep them in order.

That clever young Aucklander Mr. Bert Tate, who has been for a number of years connected with the J. C. Williamson attractions in New Zealand, has accepted a position under the Hugh D. Mclntosh banner. Mr. Tate left Wellington for Christchurch last week to act as touring representative for the Tivoli Concert Party. Mr. Tate, who has a fine personality, ought to prove a great success in his new position. Amongst the passengers who arrived in Wellington from San Francisco by the Maitai was Miss Jeannette Spellman, an American vaudeville art.st who has come out under engagement to the Follies. Miss Spellman made her first appearance on the circuit at His Majesty’s Theatre, and scored an instantaneous success. Her songs and patter are up-to-date, and caught on well with the audiences. Miss Beatrice Nicholls and Mr. Tom McLarnie, two prominent members of the Hale Hamilton-Myrtle Tannehill Comedy Company, having completed their engagement with the J. C. Williamson firm, arrived in Wellington by the Manuka last Monday, and sailed by the Maitai for San Francisco. Both artists made a great name for themselves in Australia, being popular both on and off the stage.