HAWTREY COMEDY COMPANY.

Gisborne Times, Volume X, Issue 1000, 19 September 1903, Page 2

HAWTREY COMEDY COMPANY.

To-night tho above well-known company wilL open jat the Theatre Royal for the first time in Gisborne when the company will produce the three act farcical comedy “ The ,Lady of Ostend,” by Sir Francis Burnand. So much bas been said and road about this jclevor conception of JBurnand’s that public curiosity has naturally been much excited over the forthcoming production. It is stated to be one of the most laughable, original, and. witty of plays, and has been everywhere received with tho warmest tokens of approval. “ The Lady of Ostend ” is acknowledged to admirably fulfil the true purpose of comedy by supplying those who witness it with genuine hearty amusement from the rise to the fall of the curtain. Tho farcical comody will be preceded at 8 o’clock by Frederick Bingham’s charming comedietta in one act, entitled “ Counsel’s Opinion,” which scored a notable success during the company’s last Melbourne season. That very happy conception, “A Message from Mars,” will be staged on Monday night. The establisned popularity of the play should attract a large gathering. ihe “Message” abounds in healthy fun, skilfully woven into a fine and significant moral lesson, with startling dyuamics thrown in. The plot is simple enough and may be stated briefly. Horace Barker, a young man of wealth and position, and scientifically inclined, is revealed as the personification of selfishness and conceit. He has promised to take his aunt and fiancee to a dance. He refuses to turn out, as he wants to read an article on “ Mars.” So they go without him. Parker subsequently falls asleep by the fireside, where he dreams that a visitor arrives from Mars to turn him from his selfish ways. His dream is vividly pictured to the audience, and his experiences when turned out into the snow are alternately pathetic and amusing. Tho dream deeply impresses Parker, as it does the audience, and he is led thereby to see the error of his ways, and the fall of the curtain on the last act sees him feeding the hungry, sheltering the hhmeiess and sheltering the afflicted. . , .

In “Tom, Dick and Harry,” which is to be staged on Tuesday night, the public can be promised an evening which can be given up to unrestrained merriment, for from all accounts the piece is one of the _most amusing ever staged in this country.