WELLINGTON NOTES.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Issue 1539, 23 October 1919, Page 32

WELLINGTON NOTES.

(By

“Lorgnette.”)

WELLINGTON, October 20. The season of Miss Emelie Polini and company, under the management of Messrs. J. and N. Tait, has been in every way a success. Miss Polini is one of the most finished artists we have seen in years. Seldom does the public announcement as to a play so succinctly state its attractions as in the case of “De Luxe Annie.” “It keeps you guessing,” says the management, and that is exactly the fact.

Early in the first act you realise that there is something more in this play of quick incident and action than the ordinary operations of a smart pair of blackmailers. But the secret, though often hinted at, is very cleverly hidden until the end of the play. The second production of the Emelie Polini season went up last Tuesday evening, when the beautiful play, - “Eyes of Youth,” was presented. As Gina Ashling Miss Polini finds more opportunity for showy work than for a genuine display of fine acting. The theme of “Eyes of Youth” is one that has been handled by dramatists and novelists from Dickens down. It is that if a person has a chance of peeping into the future and seeing what will happen to him or her, he or she will take care that it does not happen. The Allan Wilkie Dramatic Company have just completed a very successful tour of the South Island, and re-open their North Island tour at Palmerston North, to-morrow evening. After visiting Hastings, Gisborne, Napier and Dannevirke, the company are to open a season at the Grand Opera House on Tuesday night, November 11, with the ever-popular drama, “The Silver King.” Messrs. J. and N. Tait’s latest musical star, the celebrated English baritone, Mr. Harry Dearth, will open a short season at the Town Hall on Wednesday evening next, the 22nd inst. Wherever he has sung the audiences seemed to be veritable Oliver Twists — demanding encore after encore, but it did not worry the genial baritone. He complied with their wishes and thereby has made himself one of the most popular singers that has ever visited this part of the world. Mr. Dearth’s New Zealand tour closes at Wellington. He will give five and possibly six concerts in Wellington, according to steamer arrangements.

During a. chat with Mr. W. H. Rundle, the touring representative of the Harry Dearth Concert Party, in Wellington the other day, he informed me that it was impossible for the celebrated English baritone to proceed further north than Wellington. The fact is that Mr. Dearth has received cable advice from his London agent that he must fulfil his contracts, or forfeit a large sum of money, the result being that Mr. Dearth has booked his passage on the Asterley, sailing from Sydney on November 22. Mr. Rundle is an Aucklander.