THE THEATRE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2830, 22 July 1916, Page 6

THE THEATRE

(By "Sylvius.")

The Tivoli Follies. ' After'a brilliant season in Auckland tlio Tivoli l'ollies Panlomiino Company —one uf the brightest and merriest shows of its kind in the hemisphere— has commenced its tour of New Zealand, mid the-fact that it is due at. the Grand Opera' House on Wednesday week is already raising pleasurable . anticipations umoiig those who love the breezy revue-uum-musieal comedy show.- The company "is headed. by Vera 'l'carce, whose charms' the .management certainly make the'most of, and . other,artists are 'l'helma Raye, red-haired and magnetic, Jean Keith, a dancing sprite, and Miss, Ella Caspers, the golden-voiced, not to mention a, ballet of tho prettiest faces and forms that Australia can produce. A. star feature is the Belgian trio. MM. Iloogstocl, Bhrcen, Penn, and their compatriot/ Mons. Jacques. Eol. the Belgian tenor, all inen who have done their bit In the Belgian army. Mr. Jack Cannot heads tho merrymakers, and has oa his statf such lively entertainers as George AVelch. burlesquer, Walter Weenie, thfi driest nigger that ever was, and Billy Ecgo, the silent fun factory This combination lias been playing to\consistently big business in Sydney, Melbourne, .and Adelaide for tho past year, and if it pleases such audiences it should find high favour with lovers of the light and airy entertainment. The Niblos. Mrs. Fred. Niblo's death, though, deplored by all who knew her, was not by any means unexpected. Miss Josephine Cohan, as she was known, travelled New Zealand with' her husband in. the 101-1 ...tour. She was very weak then,, but so great was her lovo of tile footlights that she would not give up, though Miss Beatrice Holloway was always 011 the spot ready to take up the part should Miss Cohan, "take a bad turn." Miss liolloway's evenings wore always mortgaged,'so to speak. She had to report to the stag© manager at 8 p.m., and if she was going to another theatre .-die had to leave her precise address— "Dress'circle, His Majesty's; will- run round at tho interval'"—and she was not permitted to go beyond a certain radius. That will 'indicate that Miss Cohan was pretty poorly when in New Zealand and Australia. Sho was a, golden-hearted ■woman—popular with all, and had she health—but there, it is useless supposing. It -was, indeed, unfortunate that she should pass away at the timo when her husband, Fred. Niblo, had succeeded in magnetising the Now York public in comedy for the first time in "Hit-tlie-Trail Holliday," which, has now been running over six months. Miss Cohan was a sister of George Cohan, tlw "Yankee Doodle 'Company," miter o£ many comedy successes, proprietor ,of the Cohan Theatre, and senior partner in the managerial firm of Cohan and Harris. As Sousd commercialised', the Starspangled banner in band music, Mr. Cohan has in musical comedy and farce. Bog Greiy in Musical Comedy. The momentous period of his life is declared by Bog Greig to have been his entry into musical comedy, which ho successfully achieved by his appearance as J. J. Jeffreys, the lumber king, in "High Jinks," at Melbourne Her Maj. esty's. Mr. Greig did so well that he was given the role of the waiter in the big protection of the gaiety play, "Tonight's the Night," a part ho invested with a good deal of character. Mr., Greig tells humorously of the shock he received on the first night of his appearance in "Higli Jinks." HeMvas feeling terribly nervous, and was pacing up and down in the wings just before he was to go on, when. he was approached by a stage hand. "That's bad luck for you, Sir. Greig," ho remarked. Tho actor was taken aback. "What bad luck?" he inquired. "You having to go on and play Jeffreys," was tho reply. "Rawlins was just about perfection, -wasn't he?" Just then Mr. 'Greig's cue came and he had to rush on, thereby saving himself from a nervous collapse! Those Mad Germans./

One fears (says Curados in the London ".Referee") it', is! of to argue with madmen—and the German attempt to exercise proprietorial rights with a view to a future legal claim on Shakespeare is, of course, only a form of national monomania blinded to its own stupidity. If it'were otherwise I would most readily recommend to Teuton perusal Mr, Henry Arthur Jones's pamphlet, "Shakespeare and Germany." It is described as ''written during tho battle of Verdun." Presumably tiiis does not moan that ' Mr. Jones was actually engaged iu the battle at the time of writing, though there are passages that but for tho thunder and havoc of their attack might well' bo likened to an "intense artillery preparation." Apart from his characteristically forceful. rhctovic the particular value of Mr. Jones's little book is that ho speaks as an export'dramatist. As such, he proves, from what we may call technical evidence, that Shakespeare's most famous patriotic passages represent his personal feelings because they are dragged in against the needs of the drama. In "King John," though Lymoges, Duko of Austria, is England's enemy, selling the yet unconqnered England to his ally, he must yet burst into the noble lines about that "water-walled bulwark," like Balaam beholding. Israel. Again, John of Gaunt's rhapsody "blazes yut, from a commonplace level of : jingling platitudes, with no causo.,for ignition." On the contrary, it is when England is at its worst— "bound in with shame," and "very much in what the Germans suppose to be the state of England to-day'—it is at '"fcli-is opprobrious moment that Shakespeare chooses to lavish upon her the utmost ecstasies of his love and devotion." In the same way Mr. Jones shows that wherever .Shakespeare can got in a nasty hit at Germans'ho does it regardless of literary expediency and obviously on his own personal account. Mr. Jones notes that th-o Germans havo aptly chosen "Macbeth" for their solemn tercentenary production at Weimar. Macbeth, liio Germany, had "eaten of the insane root." Deceiving the Eye, We have all seen the stage magicians who can "vanish" cards, handkerchiefs, aud billiard balls, buE it remains for Horace Goldin (now ill Australia) to handle things in bulk,, and malco solid structures that half-fill the stage "disappear into thin air." The Sydney "Sun" thus describes one of his trick's: "Malting "up as Saint Saens, tho famous conductor, he got a robust girl, assistant to take, a seat, at a piano on a special platform, with a clear view underneath. Annoyed at her performance he let down oil her and the piano a big cloth covering suspended from above. 'The bulge of tho girl's head and shoulders was prominent. Piano and girl were pulled into mid-air, leaving the platform bare. The illusionist fired a revolver, and the bulging cloth collapsed, and was let down on the stage empty. Girl and piano had vanished. For handkerchiefs tied by persons on the stage, to come untied when merely laid on°i 'spirit' table, and picked up again, seemed almost simple after the hundred other 'perplexities Goldin had given. He has a great,act, that is worth well seeing." J.C.W. and South Africa. A cablegram from Johannesburg intimates that tho African Theatres Trust has taken over the South African interests of J. C. Williamson (Ltd.). However, tho J. C. Williamson management tftatcs that negotiations lmd been proceeding with tho trust, but had not terminatedj and tliereforo it was premature to mako an announcement concerning tho interests involved. The announcement. is not surprising (says the Sydney "Daily _ Tolegraph"). South Africa, has been in a troubled stato ever since tho big Australian management en. tercd the theatrical world there. First there, were the labour riots, followed by martial law, and close upon this came tho Boer rebellion. Tho Williamson management began under tho direction of Mr. Harold Ashton, who retired to join Ihe Australian directorate as associate director. Ho was succeeded in South Africa by Mr. Richard Stewart. Australian .-vnd English actors have formed tho South African companies that have been entertaining' South African playgoers. The purchasing company is tho ■ South African Trust, a powerful money organisation, whose chief enterprise hitherto has been movI ing pictures and vaudeville (combined).