DRAMATIC RECITAL.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2257, 17 September 1914, Page 9

DRAMATIC RECITAL.

Rather meagre in number, rfnd certainly not unsparing in enthusiasm,was the audience which attended tho dramatic and song recital given by Miss Zoe Bartley, of Auckland,, in the Concert Chamber. last evenin". Miss Bartley lids a certain sprightliness of manner, and an eagerness to please, but in a recitalist one naturally looks for qualities of more or less distinction—something in the nature of what the French please to term impressement—and in these tho visitor hardly realised the anticipations'of her. audience. She was perhaps at her best in a scone from Sheridan Kjiowlos's play, Hunchback," where Helenis humorously forcing her stupid lover, Modus, to declare his passion. . In this little scene Mr. J. F. -Montague, was. niiite excellent"as Modus,' -acting ' the dolt with conviction, despite the handi-, cap of an ill-disposed wig, but Miss' Bartley was' inclined to be ever so vivacious, and. missed • the feminine charm that should accentuate the humour of the situation. She was also associated with Mr. Montague in a comic sketch, entitled "Going Away," which halted_ curiously in its action, instead of being a furious hustle from beginning to end, for the wholo humour of the farce denends upon the young couple being able to pack ,up_ in time to catch a train. As a musical nionologuist_ Miss Bartley displayed a certain agility of expression in "No" and "The Crossing-Sweeper," and later sang ■ a bracketed trio of brief songs, self-accomnanied. With Miss Alice Saunders, the recitalist- appeared in the clever little "story without words," "The Betrothal," in which the acting 'and expression of both were good. Mr. J. F. Montague recited that, dramatic passago from Thackeray's "Vanity Fair." usually entitled "Mrs. Rawdon Crawley Found Out," where Rawdon, returning unexnectedly from a debtor's prison, finds his wife being entertained by' the infamous Lord Stoyhe. Tho reciter gave little dramatie colouring _to the fine descriptive passages loading up to the encounter between husband and lover,' reserving his powers for the actual fight, which was impressively suggested. What .a wealth of such scenes there are in the standard works of Knglish authors suitable for recitation 1 Mr. Montague also recited "The Grand Seigneur," and told the story of the origin of the name "Thomas Atkins" (originated by tho Duke of TVollinpljon), a? the one used to typify the British' Army ranker. Miss Alice Saunders showed gleams of talent in the Cockney sketch, "Before the Court," but the innate sordidness of the theme was not suited to the reciter, and hardly congruous to the programme. Pretty little Thurza Rogers, charmingly dressed, showed an easy aptitude for tip-toe dancing in the "Dance of the. Sunbeam," but the studied tiptoeing hardly reflected the character of the dance as suggested in the name. Mrs.- F. Montague presided at the pianoforte.