ENTERTAINMENTS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 856, 30 June 1910, Page 6

ENTERTAINMENTS.

HIS MAJESTY'S THEATRE. Rain may descend and the bitter blast of winter may blow, but it is all the same lo picture shows. Last evening His .Majesty's Theatre was so full that tho sale of tickets had to bo stopped before the house lights \vero turned out to allow full play for the light of the kinematograph. The programme presented last evening was packed witli pictures of a very high standard of merit. One verv' beautiful picture took for its subject the Biblical story of Esther, the maiden whom the King selects for his favourite, and who with Uordecai lays bare the infamous plot to assassinate the monarch. Tho picture is beautifully tinted with colours suitable to the Eastern location of the story and the character of Esther is most artistically acted. Another highly-dra-matic picture, the story of which is woried out on the limitless- plains of Western America is entitled "Across the Plains." A New England blacksmith finds times so hard that the mortgage forecloses, and following Horace Greeley's advice to "go West," joins an immigrant train bound to tho land of sunset. As the wagons are jolting along a love incident develops to heighten the interest. Then comes the alarm that Indians are approaching. There is a fight and many fall, including tho parents of the young girl of the love affair. She is adopted by the stout old farmer-blacksmith, who settles down to hew a fortune out of Mother Earth. Once more the Indians descend on the little homestead and apply tho torch and shoot the old man. The youngest daughter escapes in tho smoke and summons assistance, which arrives just as the women are being put to tho torture. There is another sharp encounter, depicted with splendid naturalness, in which the "boys" are victorious, and the lovers are united as they should be after such trying experiences. "Tho Sculptor" is an eccentric study in which the artist goes to sleep in his studio, and dreams of his clay becoming animated, and forming with lightning rapidity dogs, lions, and monkeys in the quaintest method. "A Rich Revenge" is an excellent biograph study illumined by the fascinating acting of Miss Dorothy Nicholson. One of the finest topical pictures ever shown is that of the late King's funeral, a Ivonderfnlly-faithful presentment of the lying-in-state and the majestic cortege from Buckingham Palace to Westminster, and after the train journey the funeral procession passing through the .streets of Windsor. This film has u national importance, and is almost as interesting as an actual view of the woeful event. Other good pictures are:— "As it is in Life," "A Sardine Sandwich," "Broken China," "The Dawn of Freedom," "Tombolin's Duel," "A Crowded Tlotel," and "A Phantom Ride." There will be a matinee performance on Saturday afternoon.

THEATRE ROYAL. Tho variety show at the Theatre Royal this week is a very good one indeed, some very high-class vaudeville items being included in the programme. There is that most extraordinary and irresistibly funny travesty oJ a Spanish bull-hght, presented by the Do Ee Jli troupe, who are assisted by Lolita, a graceful Spanish dancer. Gillaume Baby and Co., the knock-about comedy artists from JJuiopc, are a strong company, and vastly entertaining. Tho otlicr items on the programme are each excellent in their distinctive ways, and the whole entertainment is to bo commended to those in search of a pleasant evening's amusement.

THE KING'S THEATRE. The King's Theatre was packed to the doors last evening, when the usual weekly cliange of programme was presented. Regular patrons voted it one of the best programmes ever presented at the King's, on account of the diversity of the pictures and their admirable quality. The star picture was unquestionably the highly educational study, entitled "Glimpses of Bird Life," one of those masterpieces of kinematography by Mr. Oliver G. Pike, who must have used a deal of artifice to photograph the birds in their natural state as he has done. The pictures include studies of such wild birds as guillemots, blackbacked gulls, gannete, puffins, ravens, buzzards, kestrels, and cuckoos, desporting themselves apparently undisturbed in their native haunts, remote from man, but not from the venturesome kinematograph. The pictures are picked out in the most beautiful natural colours, which is a considerable aid to those taking an interest in natural history. The American' Biograph Co. provide an excellent comedy in "A Rich Revenge." The storyis deliciously humorous. A young couplo are induced to take up a vegetable farm, and struggle along with such indifferent success that the man loses heart completely when ho fails to get a market for his products. On top of this comes the malevolent plotting of the sweet young; lady's rejected suitor. He seeks to ruin his successful rival altogether br emptying a number of casks of oil into the streams which irrigate the farm. An oil speculator driving past the allotment sees the oil deposits in the ground, and finding that the earth is impregnated with oil offers the defected farmer 10,000 dollars for his farm. The bargain is quickly sealed, and the speculator is just about to get to work when the farmdespoiler happens along aud explains the whence of the oil, at which news the speculator collapses as the late owners flit by in a motor-car. "On the BorderLine" is another good dramatic picture. A New Yorker, forgetting his«umbrella, returns for- it to find, his wife in the arms of another man. Without being seen, he leaves the house, crushed and distraught by his. wife's, apparent infidelity, and purchases poison to end bis life.' Adjourning to his office he finds a parcel, and a letter explaining that it is a oako from his aunt. He conceives the awful revenge of poisoning the cake and sending it home. The boy who delivers Hie cake returns with a letter saying that his wife's brother hod arrival, aud urging him to go homo for luncheon. ' Comprehending the tragedy of his act he secures a doctor, and drives home furiously to find his wife aud her brother eating the cake. He tells them it. is poisoned, and they become blank with horror, until tho doctor by smelling anil tasting the decoction labelled "Poison" pronounces it a harmless compound, the chemist having substituted the same for tho fatal draught.. The wife is shocked by her husband's lack of faith, but a reconciliation is brought about by their child, and all ends happilv. The pictures of the lung's funeral continue to hold the public enthralled. It is olio of the fiuest processional films ever screened in Wellington. Other excellent pictures are "A Deal in Broken China," "Rice-growing in Japan" (a fine industrial picture), "The Orange-grower \ Daughter," "A Short-sighted Duellist." "The Old Gamp," and "Dr. Phantom." The usual matineo will be given on Saturday afternoon.

STAB PICTURES. There was a large attendance at St. Thomas's Hall, Newtown, last evening, where an excellent series of pictures was exhibited of the. funeral of King Edward VII. The pictures are very clear and detailed, and give an admirable impression of the augusl. and solemn event. The other films which are now being shown at St. Thomas's.Hull are of great interest and variety. The programme will be repeated to-night.

OLYM PIA RINK. Roller skating at the Olympia Eink in Vivian Street continues to have a big following; Every session sees crowds of enthusiastic skaters—some expert, others passing fair, others again, perspiring in their efforts to effect a graceful comparison between the lairs of personal equilibrium ami the inclinations of ballbearing skates to wander anywhere but in the right way.

Tho Wellington Musical Union will give a performance of "Hiawatha" in the Town Hall on Friday next. Tho box plan is now open at the Dresden. Tho visit of Mr. M'Cnbo to New ZeaInnd is of interest in an especial sense, to women, and lo intellectual women in particular, lie is one of the mast; capable champions of women's rights, and bv his two books, "Woman in Political Evolution," and "The Religion of Woman" (the la.st-i'.amed book, says a lady writer, no thoughtful woman can read without becoming emancipated from the thialdom of superstition), he has placed the female portion of every community in his debt. Women, therefore, ought to attend his tutinrcs in. crowds.