"ALAS, POOR GHOST!"

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1351, 31 January 1912, Page 5

"ALAS, POOR GHOST!"

"HAMLET" THIRTY .TEAKS AGO,

A correspondent writes:—"Td-UigUt iCr }}: ,f • Irving is playing. 'Hnmlcf in the Wellington Opera House.''lt'"was apropos of this that I heard the. following-remi-niscenco of 'Hatfllet,' as played here over thirty years ngo—over thirty years ago, in tho days of zealous air.ato.urs, who attacked everything from Shakespeare to tho latest melodrama! They made their mistakes ('Hamlet' was one Yof them), but they achieved many successes) and gained ripe experience .and tlnifc."keen good humour which makes for laughter over the follies of tho past. -, ■ ■ "Thirty years ngo the idea. of. a.-benefit performance was mooted, .and; .amateurs arranged scenes from variousp'lays, the 'piece do remittance* . being ' Act I from 'Hamlet,' to end tho bill, v."

"There was a largo audieilctf that night in the old Theatre Royal—everybody know everybody these days. ' Tho performance went well till tho curtail! roso on Act I of 'Hamlet.' Then the audience, after a little hesitation, began to enjoy things hilariously. Tho Horatio, (i zealous soul, knew practically the whole play, a fact which proved of the utmost importance when the Ghost's turn onmo to speak. The Ghost meant well, lint he had never acted before. Stnge tricks he knew, as he bad been a Pceneshifter in his younger days—but his part he did not know. Therefore, hoping all would bo well, he printed his speeches in large letters, and stuck up the placard on the battlements, - opposite his station. Unfortunately, a willing, but misguided, scene-shifter covered over the. placard, with the result that' the Ghost etood speechless and demoralised, while hi? words floated across the,.stage from tho lips of Horatio, standing in tbo vines. , •■. "Some former prompting had aroused tho mirth of tbe audience, mid when Mnrcellus remarked: 'There's >-onl«Hl.ins rotten in the state of Denmark,' a voice from the pit replied: 'Hear! hear!' amid the laughter uf spectators. The 'Hamlet , of the occasion, who had recently returned from England, had seen' Sir Henry Irving in the part. Tho great man's mannerisms, but not his art, were laboriously reproduced. The Ghost's (or Horatio's) speech was pnnchiated freely with hollow groans from' Hamlet,' the groans being repeated with,. gusto, by tho audience, and Ihe crowing of the crick wr.s the signal for cock-a-<'oodlo-dops from all parta ef the house. Tho curtain fell amid a babel of cat-calls, cheers. And laughter. A hilarious band of Delates rushed the stago door, and 'Hamlet' and the castle-watch flod through thrt quiet, night, Inking refuge finally iri a ebnvev.ient sawmill, while the deluded pursuers fwent on to their'revtnge. "Such is youth, that, in, spite of this experience, the amateurs were" rehearsing 'Othello' two months Inter!" ■■