SEASON OF DRAMA.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2077, 11 May 1907, Page 2

SEASON OF DRAMA.

BOX PLANS OPEN TO-DAY. The season of drama to be commenced next Wednesday will form an epoch of more than ordinary significance in the theatrical history of this town. Perhaps no more powerful organisation has ever visited this colony than Mcynell and Gunn’s Company, which includes in its ranks leading actors and actresses of sustained English and Australian reputo. No more popular engagement could have been made than that of Mr. Harcourt Beatty, an actor whose narno has been a household word throughout the colonies, and who today is generally regarded as the most versatile that has ever come to Australia. A company of the highest excellence is associated with this brilliant artist. M'iss May Congdou, the young actress who created such a sensation with the company on the last tour, will appear in her original role of Mabel Wilson, in the production of “The Fatal Weddingl” A most important feature of "The Fatal Wedding” is the famous children’s scene, in Act 111., which a contemporary thus describes:—“Whilst the sensation of the melodrama is the wedding scene, the novelty is the ‘Tin Can Band,’ of 30 juveniles. The ‘Tin Can Band’ works to the .tick of the clock, so to speak, each member acting in complete uniformity with the other. Not once, but repeatedly, the audience frantically cheered the band, the marching and evolutions, the singing and dancing being something to remain a fixture in the mind. All kinds of oddly-attired children participate, it being a scene of rags and tatters, bare feet, and low life. (The plans for the season open.at 10 o’clock this morning, on the stage of His Majesty’s Theatre.