" Trilby."

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 211, 10 March 1897, Page 2

" Trilby."

Commenting on tbe above performance at New Plymouth, the News says : " The performance was a splendid success. The interest concentrates on two characters, ' Svengali ' and ' Trilby,' and the impersonators of those characters require a considerable amount of ability and energy to make the performance run with that smoothness which is essential for its success. Mr Collet Dobson and Miss Idrene Thornton, the exponents of the characters in question, are both well known in New Plymouth, and their ability is undoubted. Mr Dobson's representation last night of ' Svengali ' was decidedly pleasing, and he is to be complimented on the results. He invested the part with sufficient realism to make the audience view him with horror, and on more than one occasion the feelings of those present were made manifest. Miss Idrene Thornton gave a clever impersonation of * Trilby.' In the opening scene, where she appeared as the gay, frolicsome girl in the artist's studio and displays on a small scale a diminutive pedal extremity, she was free, easy, and natural; but it was in the more pathetic parts that Miss Thornton was seen to advantage. Her renunciation of ' Little Billee ' because things are not what they seem was meritorious, and was warmly applauded. She also sustained her part well when she was supposed to be under the evil influence of Svengali, and at the conclusion of the third act the andience insisted on the curtain being raised. Reserved seats may be booked at Mr Car. thew's, stationer.