"The Octoroon"

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 122, 8 April 1890, Page 2

"The Octoroon"

The Assembly .Rooms, last night, were literally crowded with an appreciative audience to witness tlie second performance of the Feilding Dramatic Club in the famous spectacular drama." The Octoroon." Miss Bellve sustained the title rdle, and more: than justified the expectations formed of her ability. -Miss Parr, as. Dora Sunnyside, was excellent, and enabled the audience to realise all the charming piquancy attached to the character," while, ber'eyery movement and action on' the stage showed' how carefully she had studied- her part of a warmhearted, impulsive, and generous.Southern girl. Miss Parr; is cleyer and has real histrionic talent. Miss Rutherford, as Mrs Peyton, also showed she had carefully studied ' the character she had to represent, and was successful in acting naturally and With ease the part of a highbred Southern lady. The other lady amateurs, whose names we were unable to ascertain, did very well indeed, and deserve every praise. Mr F. Keen, A3 Jacob •McCloskey, acted really well. He was letter perfect, and reproduced to bis audi- , ence the character of one of those abominable scoundrels who were the natural outcome of the system of slavery which obtained at the , time of the .'story of theOctoroon. He was very effective and never missed a , point— a great thing in a young actor. His "make up " was splen-. did, and few of the audience recognised Mr Keen when he came on the stage. Mr R. F. Haybittle, as Salenl Scudder, had the audience with him during the whole progress of the piece. Mr Haybittle: is undoubtedly a clever actor and thoroughly understands stage business, and to him may safely be attributed the largest share of the oredit of the piece. Mr J. Fraser, as Pete, was good, and his quaint ways and sayings excited alternate feelings of sympathy or laughter. Mr Fraser is already a favorite amateur, and has considerable ability as a comedian. Paul, a yellow boy, was very well' acted by Master, J. Bellve, and the death scene when he was ;mur'dered: by -McCloskey. was -very affecting. Colonel Pqintdexter, an auctioneer and slave salesman, found a fitting representative in Mr J. Pringle, whose " get up " showed that he had adopted as his model the most popular stock salesman on this coast. The likeness was urinristakeable. Wah-no-tee — Mr L. Pike — was also well made up, and his very appearance in the war paint and feathers Was sufficient to cause an uncomfortable feeling in the regions of the scalp. He made the most of his part and appeared to have a real good time when he had his terrific combat with McCloskey in the*" 'swamp. The .other characters, Ratts, captain of the steamer, Mr W. Bellve ; Jules Thibodeaux, Mr E. Pope ; Mr Jackson, a.planter, Mr Beechy ; Solon, Mr G. Worsfold,' La Fouche, a rich planter, Mr C. Aitken, were all yery well filled; There was only one hitch, which occurred at the conclusion of the piece;, when a delay of a few seconds was caused, but of no great consequence. Before the last act Mr R. F. Haybittle came in front of the curtain and after thanking the audience in grateful terms for the attention they had paid, and consideration for the shortcomings of the performance shown in the course of the evening, announced that the performance would be repeated to-night at reduced prices We must not forget to mention that the orchestra was really first rate and contributed largely to the success of the performauce.