KING’S THEATRE.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1404, 22 March 1917, Page 53

KING’S THEATRE.

“WHO KILLED JOHN WATSON?”

'x he change of bill at the Kind's Theatre, Newton, next Saturday (24th March) will have a special interest, the piece to be produced being Mr. J. Youlin Birch’s original melodrama, “Who Killed John Watson?” Mr. A. Brandon-Cremer, in producing this new work, is setting an example in the encouragement of local talent which other theatrical managers might do well to follow. It is sheer nonsense to suppose that only plays with the hall-mark of London or New York upon them are likely to please New Zealand audiences. We have our own playwrights in this country, and Mr. Birch is already favourably known as one of them. Few playgoers will need to be reminded of the success of the comic operas “A Moorish Maid” and “Manuella,” both of which he was the author. “Who Killed John Watson?” will reveal Mr. Birch as a dramatic writer, and it is said that he has so constructed this p ece as to maintain the interest right through. In rehearsal the piece is going splendidly. The solution of the question put in the title is said to be kept back until the last moment of the play, and this is bound to cause it to be followed with tense interest. With Mr. Cremer encouraging local talent the theatre-going public may be confidently relied upon to do their share, and big houses are likely to fill the King’s all the week.