RICE DRAMATIC COMPANY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1492, 28 June 1905, Page 3

RICE DRAMATIC COMPANY.

"TEN NIGHTS IN A BAR-ROOM.”

The greet moral and temperance drama •* Ten Nights in a Bar-room ” was staged at His Majesty's Theatre last evening by the Bice Dramatic Company, Despite the boisterous state of ,tbe >?iemenis there was a large attendance, the popular .ports of fike house being well filled. As is usual ■with; all of Mr Bice’s productions, the piece ■ovas -elaborately staged, the utmost attention being paid to detail. The plot of the Hrama is well known to our readers, and, ■needless to soy, in the hands of the local .company the piece was exoollently interpreted. Mr Alfosd Bice, as Joe Morgan, the drunkard, ahJy sustained the part. His acting in the third scene was particularly good, his interpretation of all the trying phases of the drunkard’s career being masterly. Mr T. Holdswor£b, the sovial landlord of the Sickle and Sheaf, ■"suited his part admirably, and made the anost of a rather trying character. The -congenial character of Samplo Swichel .was given a piquant interpretation by Mr ■Clark, his acting in the fourth soeDe befog .warmly applauded. Miss Esther Dalroy, as Mrs Morgan, the drunkard’s wife, sustained the part well., and put great pathos into her acting in the dea.th scene of her daughter Mary, a oharaoter which wa3 nicely acted by little Ivy Kobortson. Miss Bachel Bice made a charming Mehiballe ? Cartright, and received an encore for her S' singing of the . ballad, “ The Mulligan (Guards.” Master Alfred Bice gave a clever ■reading of his part of Frank Slade, the landlord's son. The other characters’’ were very capably carried out by ■Delia Jones (Mrs Slade), Mr T. g ant (Harvey Green), Mr B. George Komaine), Mr James Alexander o Hammond), Mr O. Tait (Ned Hargreaves), Mr B. Smith (One-legged Joe). Mr D. Mayors (Jndgo Hammond), and Master Tait (Willie Tick). Tho visions of angels and chorus in act IV, and tho grand vision in the final act were beautifully portrayed! It is hoped that Mr Bice will ■ stage this fine moral drama again shortly, as the inclement state of’the weather must &ave kept a large number away, \