ENTERTAINMENTS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3026, 13 March 1917, Page 3

ENTERTAINMENTS

FLORENCE ROCKWELL SEASON

The box plans for the nine nights' season of Miss Floronco Rockwell, Mr. Frank Harvey, and the J. C. Williamson Company associated with iheso artists, will bo opened at the Bristol on Friday morning at 9 o'clock. The season will commeneo at tho Grand Opera House on Tuesday next. Tho opening attraction will be "The House of Glass," by Max Marcin. Mr. Marcin this year in New York has a big comedy success in "Cheating Cheaters," which play by tho way has been secured for New Zealand by J. C. Williamson, Lid. "The House of Glass" is a drama based on an incidont of TOitl life, that came under tho notice of the author whofl he was a reporter on a New York daily,, and it has passed its eighteenth month in New York. Tho play was practically written for Sties Florence Rockwell, who has a big reputation as an emotional actress, and whose impersonation of the persecuted hproino, Margaret Case,/is said to be an enthralling piece of stage work. Mr. Frank Harvey is also credited with an exceptionally fine performance in ilie part of Harvey Lake.' Others in a long cast are Messrs. Arthur Styan, Arthur Greenaway, Leonard Stephens, Boyd Irwin. and Misses Maggie Knight, Gertrude Boswell. Stella Payter. Four nights only will be devoted to "The House of Glass." which will give way to Somerset M'aughan's fine play, "The Land of Promise," which will "be succeeded for the last three nights of the season by "The I/aw of the Land," by George Broadhurst.

' HIS MAJESTY'S THEATRE. With St. Patrick's Day at hand thi3, of all weeks in the year, may he con. sidered the Irishmen's week. This was made broadly and hilariously obvious at Bis Majesty's Theatre last evening, when the programme took on an emerald tint. Victor Prince's Company with a musical farce, entitled "A Bit of Irish," opened the ball to a merry tune. It is a diverting bit of irresponsible nonsense,_ punctuated with 6ome clever witticisms, humorous allusions, and ridiculous situations, which radiate round tho substan- ' tial proportions of Victor Prince, who ! ! figures .as Patrick Muldoon. a Dublin - j bricklayer, whoso antics in polite society Mare distinctly mirth-provoking. Mr. ) Prince made a laughing hit in tho song - 'We've Got .to Get the Nine O'Clock . Train," and in' the cheerful lilt, "Cas- . sidy, V.C." Mr. Chas. Zoli was suc- , cesful as an Italian Chef, _ and Miss Dorothy Hastings lent an air of reftnej mont as Molly O'Dare. Tho Bridget Muldoon of Miss Lillian Colenso was more forcible than funny. On tho whole the sketch wont well enough, and will improve with repetition. Miss Marjory Alwyn sustained tho national ! character of the bill by singing "Tho ! Songs My Mother Used to Sing" and "A , Bit of Heaven," in which latter song' her : pleasing voice was hardly up to pitch. An altogether original turn, with the ' element of surprise, was that provided by ' Mr. Ernest and Miss Mario St. George. 1 Whilst an aged sculptor tells a weird i story of being cast away on an island with a beautiful girl, with whom ho falls i in love, the main feature in tho narrai tive are represented, by Miss St. Gecigo ■ in a series of statuesque poses. Then like Pygmalion of old, tho sculptor fashions a statue in tho likeness of nia island love, a but a flash of lightning dashes it to pieces at his foot, and even as ho laments his loss, a living statue rises in its place. The idea is grotesque perhaps, but it is cleverly done, and was.well received. Other performers were Billy Mann, the coloured comedian; Alsaco, who played violin and 'cello 6olos in a settincr that hurt the artistic sense; Mark Erickson, a robust comic 6ingor and story-teller; and tlio Eosie Riile Club, which performs prodigies of marksmanship with tho pearifle. A feature of tho second half was tho Fox Trot competition, aVranged by Mr. Yorko Gray. Thrco Juvonilo couples competed, showing considerable facility in this crazy form of dancing. Tho judgment was left to the applause of the audience, and tho result was so even between two of the couples that they, with others, arc to danco again this evening. THE KING'S. Mademoiselle Valkyrien is the feature player of "Hidden Valley/' a fivo-rccl Patho Gold Booster screen drama, by the Thanhouser Company. Tho important scenes tako placo in South Africa, and suggest tho tales of adventure which Eider Haggard has been so prolific an author. "Hidden Valley" has tho necessary ingredients to make a palatable story. Thero are savago tribes, a manly hero, a captive white girl, and a mysterious tomple that is her j)ri6on-house. Mdlle. Valkyrien has splendid opportunities for display of her terpsichorean abilities in 6ome' of tho weird native dances. William Collier, in a Triangle comedy, called "Never Again," and a.well-filled number of tho "Topical Gazette" completo a fino programme. THE EMPEESS. " ' Jim Blake lived a fast and furious paco as long as his millionaire father continued to write out cheques as , the young man's bills came in. However, tho father suddenly stopped, and this is where the action commences in. "All Man," tho World Film, showing at tho "Empress Theatre. The' picture veers round from wine-mad scenes of midnight revelry when the young man is having his fling, to splendidly virile open-air advontures, when he proves "All Man" on his father's ranch. The most terrifying railway smash seen since "The Juggernaut" is an incident in this production. Mollie King and Gcrdu Holmes assist Eobert Warwick to bo a real hero. EVERYBODY'S THEATRE. Hasheesh, the Indian drug which has such dreadful effects, is the mainstay of the dope-ridden outcast whioh the hero becomes in "The Beggar of Cawnpore," tho fine Triangle play of the Indian Mutiny now showing at Everybody's. The name-part is played by H. B. Warner, who has been seen here in such splendid pictures as "The Raiders" and "Tho Bartered Bride." As the "dopefiend" in this picture he gives a remarkable characterisation. This picture and Billie Burke in the third story of "Gloria's Romance," "Perilous Love" make a programme that i 6 attracting the crowds.