TRIBUTE TO ALLAN WILKIE.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1398, 8 February 1917, Page 36

TRIBUTE TO ALLAN WILKIE.

It has fallen to very few actors in Australia to receive so warm a tribute of public appreciation as was accorded to Mr. Allan Wilkie and the leading members of his Shakespearean company at the Princess’ Theatre (says the Melbourne “Age”). To commemorate the completion of a year of Shakespearean acting in Australia Mr. Wilkie had arranged a souvenir night, at which the programme consisted of the most popular scenes from the most popular dramas he has produced in Melbourne, interspersed with Shakespearean songs. The theatre was packed with an audience that could not sufficiently applaud the actors. Every appearance of Mr. Wilkie on the stage was the signal for fresh outbursts of vociferous greeting, and every exit an occasion for flattering recall. If anything can convince Mr. Wilkie and his company that the work they are doing to uplift “the poor degraded stage” of our day by the production of the world’s greatest masterpieces of drt ma and poetry, it should be the demonstration of public favour and goodwill that made the performance a unique event in the annals of the Australian stage.