REALISM ON THE STAGE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1459, 18 January 1887, Page 3

REALISM ON THE STAGE

The latest attempt at reallem 00 the London ntage is thus described by the Home News :— " It might have been thought that Mr T'ouglass had reached the fall extent of 9tsge realism when he product d plays with racehorses, pacKs of hounda, vans of children, and real showers of rain, but it seems that realistic effect has no bounds, for hia latt venture exceeds m bo'dnesa of conception anything that has gone before. At the first announcement, of a drama m which real water is to produce one of the effects the memory of old playgoers carries them back to Sadler's Wells Theatre m its flourishing days, when startling episodes were brought about by means of a portion of the Now River being made to pass beneath tbe stage, and m connection with which there are legends of life haying been lost through people connected wi£h the theatre inadveDtly stepping into the gulf. With Mr Douglass' management of the Standard no such mishap is likely to befoll, for tho effects a'e produced by means of a shallow tanks, large erqugh, however, to pontain over 200 tone of water. The objeot of this'ia to give a really striking representation of the Thames during the Henley Regatta. The view is admirably painted and the foreground occupied by a fairly wide stream of water, crowded with crafts ol all kinds, from tub or dingey, of the Thames Oonaervancy officers, right up to the steam launch, which passes across whistling and steaming up the water with its screw, to the alarm of reai swanß — this being probably the first occasion m which these birds made their appearance upon the strge. In addition to these genuine craft, "an outrigger m which the hero rows m the winning of 'Diamond Soullb, 1 Mr Richard Douglass, the scene pointer has produced some admirable iff'iotß w th mimic l;ou eboAts acd others the whole being oertainiy one of ihe most striking of the Bfrge pictures the Standard has had to show. But to make most of tho coatly eceno, by a clever arrangement tbe sky is made ( o cloud over and a heavy fall of rain, as real an '<h°> wa'er of the river, produces a suddeu .i.v>iv of umbrellas and waterproofs 5 while after •he descent of the curtain another change is' Bhown of Henlry by night, with the boats Illuminated with Chiaese i&ti terns."