THE THEATRE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1384, 9 March 1912, Page 9

THE THEATRE.

(Br SrLvius.) The World's a theatre; the Earth a stage.—Hoywood. Ethel Irving To-night. This evening tho playgoing public will be given tho opportunity of witnessing one of England's foremost actresses in a brilliant comedy with which her name must over bo associated. In welcoming Miss Ethel Irving, that same public must bo under no shadow of misuppreheusion as to her standing or transcendent ability. Sho is, without any doubt, tho finest actress in comedy that New /..calami has .seen, and, when it is stated a.s a cold fact that Miss Irving electrified London in Somerset Manghan's comedy, "Lady Frederick," i" 1007-8, that assurance should be sound enough to convince tho sceptical as to tho visiting actress's powers. It is related that managements pursued Miss Irving for many months before sho would consent to play the part. Somerset Maughan was then practically an unknown dramatist, and managements leave nlono actresses (who are always more or less afraid of being associated with failures), look askance at the unknown writer. Miss Irving is said to have refused the part persistently, until, one, day, her husband arrived homo and informed her that he had signed a. contract for her to appear in "Lady Frederick." The good lady was very much put out at having been placed in so awkward a situation, but, after a tlneo days' sulk, consented to read the part at rehearsal. It gained on her as tho play took shape, and, eventually, when produced in October, 1907, at the Court Theatre, it proved an enormous success. When the leaso of tho theatre ran out, it was shifted to another house, where it still continued to attract enormous business, and, in tho end, was played at no fewer than five West End houses before it exhausted its popularity. In the original London caste (hero were (besides Miss Irving) Mr. C. M. Lowne, Mr. Edmund Breon, Mr. Arthur HolmesGore, Mr. E. W. Garden, Miss Beryl Fiibcr, Miss Beatrice Terry, and Miss Florence Wood. Since then Somerset Maughan has come right to tho front in England and America. Somo of his successes are: "Mrs. Dot," "Smith," "Penelope," "Tho Explorer," "Tho Bishop's Apron," and "Liza of Lambeth." In "Lady Frederick" ho is delicately satirical, and brilliantly epigrammatic, whilst tho "completeness" of his characters and tho skilful construction stamps him as one of tho leading English playwrights of tho day. It would he delightful, indeed, if we could rely on more frequent visits of actresses of the class of Miss Irving in plays of tho standard •Mr. Alaughan sets. Vaudeville Once More, There are always audiences for good vaudeville. In London and New York the music-hall entertainment has been improved in tone to such au extent that doubts have been expressed as to whether it will not lose its old form altogether, and (hereby lose somo of its charm to lightly entertain. This has been brought about by tho large and increasing number cf legitimate actors and actresses, who have concentrated their efforts on sketch work to catch tho big salaries that are offering for work a gcod deal less arduous than that which they are called upon to do in theatres devoted to comedy cr the drama. Thcro is no fear, however, of that becoming the case in New Zealand. Messrs. John Fuller and Sons have given the public some very good vaudeville shows in tho past, and, if the desired standard lias not always been maintained, the double excuse is that it is difficult to procure good artist?, and that a management can only cut its suit according to its cloth. This, in other words, means that tho salary sheet must, to a largo extent, be governed by tho patronage accorded. Tho firm is to make nncther incursion into vaudeville this evening. Fasoln, the fakir, comes with a good reputation a.s a worker of stage magic. The Windsor Choristers, too,' are a small choir of lads, whise singiiig of part-songs is said to ho.soothing to the musical sense. Other artists of repute will contribute to tho gaiety of tho re-birth of permanent vaudeville at the old Theatre Royal. Joseph Blascheck Talks, Mr. Joseph Blascheck, the popular English entertainer, has a good general knowledge of the stage. Speaking of tho Into Mr. Georgo Grossmith, senior, he says that, ontsido the West End of London, he was caviare to tho great mass of the general public. This was because his sketches, jekes, and stories were intensely topical, and much of tho fun of them was lost upon audiences that were not au fait with tho matters dealt with. Even in the provinces he was not understood so well as in liis own London, where he was worshipped by the blase West Endcr us one of the few real slayers of ennui. Mr. Blasahsek is a personal friend of Mr. Gordon Craig, the only son of Miss Ellen Terry. Mr. Craig has como to the front during recent years as a stage manager, or rather a stage-decorator with a new idea. For many years Mr. Craig v hcld tho opinion that tho rough outline or sides to a scene made by "flats" was as inartistic as it was wrong. Why should almost every garden scene be flanked with great trees or masses of growth of one kind or another, chopped off suddenly, so to speak, to make room for the characters to walk about in? Often it is a little cottage garden, yet "for effect" the boughs meet and interlace overhead. In phort, Mr. Craig holds that harmony should prevail in tho "makeup" of a scene, and ho has proved that this can, to' a great extent, be achieved by a study of lights. Mr. Craig is against tho use of footlights. Footlights, most of us are aware, are used to counteract tho border-lights overhead in order that no shadows may mar the face, the figure, or the scene. The new idea (which should be a very old one) is that, whether natural or artificial, we get our light from above, and shadows are natural. For a brightly sun-lit scene to he without shadows is unnatural. The scenic artist knows this and paints them in—sometimes—but, as often us not, ii . stage manager goes, crazy if lie perceives a siiadow on tho stage. Of course ho is right so long as there, is no substitute for the sun diffusing light into the same effulgence as ths heroine's sweetest smile might be lost, and her dimples would count for nought when lost in the shade of her Merry Widow, but, given a light as effective as the sun, the Gordon Craig idea might work. After all, why raise trouble over a shadow? Still, Craig and Kinshardt are doing much to elevate stago productions, and out of their extreme views much good may come. Tho, Lure of the Music-Hal!. Tho power of tho London music-hall seems resistless. This institution is now to embrace opera amongst its attractions —not opera in condensed form, but in its entirety. Such will bo tho effect of tho important decision given the other day by the Lord Chamberlain in regard to "the halls," and already Sir Edward Moss has shown his enterprise by engaging Mascagni to go to London to conduct his own work, "Gavsilleria Husticana," twico daily at tho Hippodrome. Thus this cumposer will follow tho recent example of Leoncavallo, the difference being that "Cavalleria liusticana," unlike "1 Pngliacci," will not bo condensed. Mascagni has insisted upon au orchestra of from C") to 70 members; there are to bo three separate companies, so that the voices of the artists may not be tired by singing twice a day, or even two days in succession, and tho chorus of 50 will be taken over from Italy. Sir Edward Moss says, not unexpectedly, that the venture will cost morn I hau .£2OOO a week. Meanwhile "the halls" have been attracting, even under the old conditions, (he most prominent, artists, and last month Sir Herbert Tree, who had up till then steadfastly refused to cross the boundary-lino separating the theatre from the music-hall, agreed, now that this lino has practically been swept away, to appear at the Palace. This was his introduction to tho variety stage, and he had a great reception in Kinsoy Ppile's adaptation of Kipling's "The Man Who Was." The Grossmitiis. It was staled recently that Mr. Wcedin Grossmith was the sun of Mr. George. Grossmjtli, sen., the famous actor and entertainer. That is not so. Mr. Weedon (irossmjth is the son of a Mr. George (iroHsmilli, journalist and lecturer, but he and the late Ceorgo were brothers. Werdon stuck strictly 11> comedy, and has mntlo miuiy rnuinrkablo 6\icccbf,cs. Ho came into prominence as Jacques Strop in tlu late SU Eoni7. Ixrinj'j production

of "Kobort M;-e;iir<\" ph.! subsequently made di-tinet "hits" in "Wealth," "Aunt •lack," "Tho Cabinet Minister," "A Pantomime Kehcnrsal," "The Night of the. Party," and thai charming comcdv. "The Biiku- of Killiecrankie." Mr. "Wecdon Grossmith was live years junior Id dm kilo Georgo Grossniilh, who.-o death Hie old Savoyards will sincerely lament. Frank With Ibsen. Ibsen's "L:u!v From The Sea" was produced in New York recently. The todioiisuess (if its psychological' gloom marked it down for failure. One critic wrote:— "The ])hiy will never i;et a foothold on the English stage. ]ii the reading it has a fascination 'porliaps to the true, lb-en-itc\ fur he can discern in it tho philosophy of the freedom of tho will. That philosophy may mean something or nothing or anything. If applied to all the circumstances of life, it means anarchy. On tho other hand, if you care to believe so, it means tho redemption of tho human race from its present social tetters. No one who sits through a performance of this play can deny that it is a bore. Tho conditions of the story, as they may be found hero and there in the reading, arc interesting and significant enough. Why, then, docs the play fail in performance? We are, inclined to believe that it is not well written. It takes dreary momenta for us to discover anything definite about which the play nif.y be." Notes. "Take My Advice" is tho name of the latest comedy to serve as a setting for -Mr. William (Jollier, the distinguished American comedian, who delights in saying nasty things about Australia. He. wrote the comedy himself. Mr. Stephen Ewart. the leading actor with Miss Kcthel Irving, is a brother of Mr. 11. Stewart, tho original James lorrabeo in "Sherlock Holmes" in Australia .rind New Zealand. "To save the theatre, the theatre must bo destroyed, the aciors and actresses must dio of the plague—they poison tho air—they make art impossible!" Thus spoke Eloonora Duse, the Italian tragedienne, recently. This bitter denunciation was taken to bo a vigorous protest against tho invasion of commercialism into tlw realm of the theatre. Duse, the rival of Bernhardt, was born in a travelling players' caravan on tho outskirts of Venice in 185!). Tho Plimmer-Donniston Company, after a long and successful season in Sydney, have commenced a tour of the Commonwealth and New Zealand at llobart, whore they filled tho theatre for ton nights. The repertoire consists of "Nobody's Daughter," "Inconstant George," "A Woman of no Importance," "A Village Priest," and "The Second Mrs. Tanqueray." Mr. George S. Titheradge, who has had a long spell in his garden homo on the South Head l!oad, Sydney, is now a member of this powerful organisation and is said to be doing magnificent work once more. The company is due in New Zealand in September.