THE THEATRE.

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2664, 8 January 1916, Page 9

THE THEATRE.

The. World's a theatre; tho Earth a 6tage.—Hoywood. IBi Sti/VIOT.: "Peg o' My Heart." 'Teg o' My Heart," tho little play which has captivated thousands of people in Great Britain and America, is to bo produced in Sydney next Easter under the J. and N. Tait direction. Jne piece, which is said to present in an irresistible manner tho humour, wit, and pathos of an Irish-American girl in the somewhat frigid atmosphere of an Lnglisli household, was written by J. Hartley Manners, and when first presented in America it achieved an instant fame. It ran for over 600 nights at the Clort Theatre, New York, its record for London was over 700 performances, and it is still running; while it has been continuously on tour in America and the British Isles for .over three years. In Australasia the play will ; it is said, be presented on an artistic scalo by a' brilliant company, headed by Miss Sarah Allgood, who has made a great reputation as leading lady of tlio Irish Players, and has played the Part of Peg with suicess all over ■England.

War on the stage. An' officer from Gallipoli, who was drilling the soldiers ready for the production of "Under Fire" at Melbourne Theatre ltoyal,, stepped, suddenly, and looked up as <i\ whirring. nsije came Irom overhead. "My worif," he exclaimed, "I thought it was an aeroplane. _ It sounded so much like the real thing." Half an hour later there was a sound like a train rushing through a tunnel, and the officer instinctively ducked his head. ! It was an imitation of a shell sent screaming on its way from a big gun. "It was so realistic that I had to bob my head," said the officer. "Ducking has become second nature when noises like this are about." Mr. Barnum, the producer, took the involuntary testimonial as a brilliant compliment to those responsible for this important feature in "Under Cover." All the realistic sights and sounds of .war are included in i" S n P r °^ uc t' o . n ~from the scream of a shell, the whirr of an aeroplane, or the sighting of a range-finder, to- the of a star shell that lights up tho whole of the scene, just as at the front. Say "Au Revoirl" As is usually the case, the "farewell" or Miss Muriel Starr is only an "au revoir." At the final performance of the company in Sydney,' Mr. Hugh Ward announced that the American : actress would reappear in Sydney at Jiastor in a hew play. This seems to indicate that most of the time between the close of the New Zealand tour and faster will be spent in travelling to and from America. A "Mother Coose" star. Two members of tho "Mother Goose" lantomime Company.at Melbourne Her Majesty's who conside rthemselves tho hardest-worked peoplo in the cast aro Albert Felino, who plays the Golden Goose, and Billy Le Brun, who represents tho donkey as well as > the front and most important portion of tho horse. It is certainly unusual to have two- such noted animal impersonators m the one production. ; Mr. Felino and Mr. Le Brun both point out that not only does the impersonation of the goose and tho donkey entail a great deal of physical exertion, but constant practice is required to keep them "fit" and in iirst-class condition. The reason is that the _ artistshave to assume unnatural positions'for long periods which put a big strain-on various' muscles. In addition, the weight of the apparatus has to bo considered. In the case of the Golden Goose, tho "bird" carried by Mr. Felino weighs close'upon a hundred pounds. To see Mr. Felino at his _ punching ball and other exercises is like watching the work of a ' 'strong man." He is wonderfully developed, and a mass of muscle.- Mr. Le Brun is small and wiry,, but also . exceedingly, strong, for his donkey and horse out-! fit . are more than tho average man would relish carrying about during the greater portion of a ,produotion extending over three hours'.

All American. J. 0. Williamson, Ltd., have a big bunch ofnew productions for display during the year. In dramas there aro "A House of Glass/' "Common Clay," "'On Trial," "The Dummy," ','The Outcast," "The Story of the Rosary," "The Easiest "Way." Comedies include: "A i Full House,", "Tho Boomerang," "It Pays to Advertise." "Babv Mine," "Hit-tlie-Trail Holiday.'' Amongst musical plays are: "To-night's tho Night," "Betty," "Tho Girl from Utah," and "The Cinema Star." The new year will be one of tho busiest periods from the. producing point of view the J. C. Williamson firm has yet initiated. The Life Strenuous. '.'Life in the theatrical profession is beautifully easy in Australia," commented Louis, Kimball, who has come from America to play Charlie Brown, the war correspondent, in "Under Fire," at Melbourne Theatre Royal! Tile opinion was prompted by Mr. Kimball's experiences as a member of a stock company in America. "For two years," he explained, "we played a new piece every week. , That meant that we played about a hundred pieces in that period. Moreover, we gave a matinee every afternoon, making twelve performances per week. We rehearsed every morning, played during the afternoon and evening, and had to leam ouf parts between times. No, we didn't make bricks in our spare time. We sj>ent it in having a hasty look at our' wives and families, who were almost beginning to forgot what wo looked like I"

Humour in Tragedy. During the delivery of an interesting address on "Humour in 1 Tragedy," at Birmingham recently, Sir Herbert Tree, as a definition of humour, submitted;— "A nice balance of the mind; an intel'ectual pose; the faculty of regarding the events of the day . philosophically; tho habi't of looking at things with a certain tolerance, a restrained gaiety." Wisdom was thought plus humour. . A sense of humour would paralyse the arm of the murderer, and prevent its possessor from embarking upon a career of wholesale wreckage and destruction. His sanity would revolt against the idea of conduct in man which would be reprobated in most of his fellow-ani-mals at the Zoological Gardens. The person gifted with humour would feel that if it was wrong to kill ono mail it was a thousand times more wrong , to kill a, thousand .men. But this logic had not yet reached tho legislators of the world. In international iffa>rs Christianity and humour went to the wall at the bidding of expediency. If tho divino right of humour wore . bestowed on monarchs thoro would have been no war. To stop the madness of war even tlio tics of royal blood relationship 'were unavailing. Blood was thicker than water, hut gold was thicker than blood. All madmen were singular deficient in the quality of humour. An inordinate conceit characterised that state; he presumed, because tho sense of proportion was distorted. Like ovory other natural force, humour should ho mail's slave, and not his master. If humour was important as a guide in life, it was not ] less potent a factor in art. In art I humour was our best critic, guarding | uh from exaggeration. Tragedy ovoii '-Wflis pesded thia jiweeL

sanity to bold us in check. Humour exorcised tho quality of restraint in I tragedy; thus wo avoided bathos. Humour in comedy guarded us from degenerating into buffoonery. Nor should one allow one's senso of 1-u----mour to run away with one's senso of the fitness of things. The originators of Futurism were overburdened tfth humour. They had too much, their disciples too little. "Twin Beds." "Twin Beds" made a successful debut at tho Criterion, Sydney. Lively all through is tho description applied to the new farce comedy presented bv J. C. Williamson's company. Mr. Hale Hamilton, the creator of Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford, achieved a big success. His methods are easy and natural, yet his performance carries strongly over tho footlights. Myrtle Tannehi'll, the leading lady, won instant popularity also; and others in the cast were Signor Ardizoni, Celia Ghilonij Nancve Stewart, and Donald Bowles, who is also tho producer. Notes. Miss Edna Keefley, the leading lady of tho Allen Doone Company, is looking forward to a short holiday trip to America, which she intends entering upon within the next fow weeks. Miss lieeleyj who is a native of Los Angeles, in California, has not been .home for several years, and is naturally very anxious to see her friends and relatives again._ She is firm, however, in her intention of ' returning to. Australia wihin a couple of months, for, having made so many friends here, she now [looks upon the Commonwealth as tho country of her adoption. Mr. Doone ! will also shortly leave ' for America, where business interests require hi& prosence. He will only be on American soil for a 'few days, and . hopes to return to Australia by the same steamer on which ho leaves these shores. "The Rosary" was revived in Sydney at Christmas time with Harrington Reynolds once moro as Father Kelly.