THE THEATRE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 152, 16 March 1918, Page 11

THE THEATRE

(By Sylvius.).

Ada Rcavc's Achievement. Writing .of Ada Reeve's farewell in Melbourne last week tho critic of the Australasian" said:—"Notable amon* ia.wells to stage favourites was the demonstration of honoun and affection tor Miss Ada Reeve at tho Tivoli Jlieatre. In acknowledging the compliment, in which flowers and cheers were intermingled, Miss Reeve said that it would probably be her last visit to Australia, but in regard to Australia she had begun to imagine herself something of a boomerang, and with all tho uncertainty of tho future'it was possiblo that her flight about the world might again touch these regions. The andmnce made it quite clear that tho pi'ospect of such a thing was pleasing to them. Miss Reeve, in conclusion, warmly thanked those who had assisted her with the fund for tho Anzae Buffet in London. She had just received from Sir John M'Call acknowledgment of tho receipt of £9000, making £14,000 subscribed for the fluid. Of , this amount £8000 had been obtained in Melbourne." Miss Reeve is to commence a farewell tour of New Zealand in Christchurch at Easter. "Seventeen." Of Stuart Walker's production of Booth Tarkington's sketch "Seventeen the New York "Evening Post" of January 22 says:-Tho story itself must bo too well known to many of our readers to stand' in need of present description. One might say, indeed, with the needy knifo-griuder, "Story, bodiless you, there is none to tell, oil". Tho various incidents in this little domestic panorama, reduced to mere outlines, would bo neither very significant, nor entertaining. Fully portrayed, with all the accessories, they are both. As a matter of fact, "Seventeen" is, for all' intelligent spectators, with somo share of sympathetic comprehension, more of serious drama than it is of comic interlude. There is food for laughter—plenty of it—in the spectacle of poor Willie Baxter, committing all-kinds of. absurdities, (most of them perfectly, true to life), while intoxicated by the first sips from tho magic cup of romance His uneasiness under the remorseless • inquisition of his inexpressible little sister, his revolts against domestic servitude, his affectations of.niauly dignity, his tragic airs,' his dress-suit adventures, his puppy love, his poetic raptures, his troubadounng, and all the rest of it, is as genuinely-funny as it is realistic, but underlying all tho superficial comedy, ther.e is a mass of momentous suggestion,"involving.all the daily problems of youthful training and parontal relations. In the performance, of course, there is no very grave purpose. The object of it is mainly laughter—which it obtains—but regarded simply as the lightest of domestic comedy, tho pieco. would not bo worth much; It is in the. essential veracity of it, and. the sober reflections incidentally provoked thereby, that its chief value consists.

J. and >T. Tait's pantomime "Aladdin," is now being played at the Palace Theatre, Sydney.