PRINCE OF WALES THEATRE.

Auckland Star, Volume III, Issue 620, 6 January 1872, Page 2

PRINCE OF WALES THEATRE.

The tragedy of " Hamlet" was repeated last evening, in front of a very scanty audience. On the whole tne performance was a decided improvement on that of the preceeding evening, and fully convinced the audience of the very high merits of Mr Tavares as an actor. There is no part in the whole range ef the drama so calculated to test an actor's ability as that of Hamlet. There are so many phases of character to be pourtrayed, so many changes, and so much natural feeling, that none but an actor of experience and great histrionic talent can win the approbation of an entire audience and the critic. Hamlet is in progressive turns melancholy, unhappy, sensitive, affectionate, vacillating, and desponding; and it requires not only the knowledge of the murder of of his father, the drowning of his love, but even the poisoning of his mother (whom he deeply- loved) before his very eyes, to rouse him at last to vengeance. No one, had ho gone to the theatre with the greatest prejudice against Mr Morton Tavares, could have refused to award to that gentleman the highest praise for his representation of the parts. People in general are apt to judge actors by comparisons ; aud many, carrying the memory of Eean and Macready with them to the theatre, are often led to be unjust in their judgment They lose sight of the fact that all men have. Sheir, peculiar idiosyncracies; and however; well an actor plays his part, he is apt to suffer in their criticisms by comparison. It is all very well to say, " Oh, Kean and Macready did this and that, and was the Hamlet or the Macbeth," but we must "remember Kean and Macready are no more, and we must therefore judge the greatness of an actor by the age in which he lives; and therefore it is not too much to say, that, judging Mr Morton Tavares' Hamlet by that rule, we must accord him a high position in his profession. For natural pathos and feeling, perhaps there is no actor of the present age, at least none we are in the habii of seeing can excel him. Another grand test of a good actor is the loosing of his indentity, and not being so much alike in all his parts as to elicit the oft used expression '• Oh, he is the same man in all the parts he plays." Wo one who saw Mr Tavares as Sir Har« court Courtly, could have recognised him as Hamlet, either in face, manners, or speech. Mr. Tavares wore a curly flaxen wig for Hamlet, which so completely changed his general appearance, that had

we not known he was to play the part of Hamlet, we should not at first have recognised him. It is to be regretted .that the public here have not turned out more generally to witness Mr. Tavares performances. However, Mr Tavares remains here three weeks longer, and it is to be hoped he will yet by force of his talent, draw our theatre goers from their -*« to see him. We understand that dur engagement he willassay the parts' J Shylock, Macbeth, ftichard V/ / j&> Mildmay, Kichelieu, The Stranger,->'—--' and Mephistophales. We believe Mr Tavares intends visiting the Thames, before he leaves for the South.

Itf a Chinese Christian family at Amoy, a little boy, the youngest of three children, on asking his father to allow him to be baptized, was told that he was too young, that he might fall back if he made a profession when he was only a little boy. To this he made the touching reply, " Jesus has promised to carry the lambs in his arms. lam only a little boy ; it will be easier for Jesus to carry me." • This logic of the heart was too much for the father. He took him with him, and the dear child was ere long baptized. The whole family, of which this child is the younyest member —the father, mother, and three sons—are all members of the Mission. Church at Amoy. — Miss. Mag.

The Rev Robert Johnstone, Minister of Logient parish, after delivering a speech at the meeting of the Dumblane Established Church Presbytery, sank down in a fit and died.