THEATRE ROYAL.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1553, 10 February 1879, Page 3

THEATRE ROYAL.

“uncle tom’b cabin.” On witnessing the representation of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by the Coloured Jubilee Troupe on Saturday night, the question of the necessity or expediency of reviving this once representative drama is irresistibly forced upon the mind of the spectator. The conditions are so changed since Mrs Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel was first dramatised, that it is a matter for wonder why the play should again be endowed with another lease of life. At that time slavery was an institution in America, and Mrs Stowe’s powerful exposure ,of the horrors of the system had the effect of drawing public attention to it, even if it did not exeri ise any intiuence towards its suppression. The play presumably derived its evanescent interest from the same cause rather than from its intrinsic merit; hut the institution of slavery having been abolished, the d area of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin ” is shorn of all its special interest. A feature which it did not possess then is now, how-ver, imported into it, and that is, the pervading religious element. It would be manifestly presumptuous to say that any irreverence is intended by th manager of the troupe, but it is very questionable whether any gool object is achieved by mixing religion with a stage representaiion, or the combination of low comedy with psalmody. It by no means follows because a vicious play may be injurious in its effects upon public morals, that a common-place one can be rendered

| either instructive or beneficial by the inter- | nolatio i of scriptural quotations, or the singing of hymns. There can, however, be no question that many conscientious people are liable to have their feelings shocked by the familiar use of sacred things on the stage, and it is for the management to determine how far it is to their interest to disregard the popular opinion on this point. Apart from these considerations the piece was well put on the stage, and in all material points well acted. The plot is too well known to need recapitulating, and it only remains to notice the manner in which the piece was played. The title role was undertaken by Mr R. B Lewis, one of the proprietors, and as stated in the bills “ mce a slave.” Mr Lewis’s interpretation of poor old Uncle Tom was that of an elderly serious colored gentleman of such advanced piety as to make one’s fingers tingle at his unspeakable long suffering, and wish that it possessed even a mild infusion of the muscular element advocated by the Rev. Charles Kingsley, or the author of “Tom Brown’s Schooldays.” It. is possible even to liud excuses for Simon Legree’s exasperation finding vent in violence, so intensely and quietly aggravating was Mr Lewis’s imperturbable baritone goody goodincss. Mr Lewis will not object to bo told that it is possible to make Mrs Stowe’s pet creation almost too transcendental, and that a little natural liveliness and humor would bo a relief to the prevailing funereal lugubriousness of Uncle Tom. Foremost in merit of all the characters in the play is the Topsy of Miss Fanny Wiseman. It is a performance of exceptional cleverness. All the mischievous elfishness, the grotesque oddity of the character, were depicted with irresistiole humor, and it was as faithful a por r trait of the unfortunate Topsy as it’ Miss Wiseman had been playing nothing else all her life. Make up, action, gesture, and speech were each perfect, and her song " Use so wicked ” provoked roars of laughter and applause. Mrs Walter Hill was very successful in her rendering of Eliza, and on her first appearance on the stage was greeted with the reception only accorded loan established favorite. The juvenile part of Eva St. Clair was entrusted to a little mite six years of age (Miss Nellie Holmes), who has evidently been tulored with great care to speak the dialogue intelligently, and she succeeded in enlisting the sympathies of the audience by her artless manner. The dual characters of Miss Ophelia and Gassy were sustained by Miss Lizzie Bushe with credit. Mr Lawrence, who is new to a Christchurch audience, was remarkably natural, easy, and gentlemanly in the part of Mr St. Clair. The villany of the play was confided to the experienced hands of Messrs George Collier and and W. South. As I lie bloodthirsty slaveowner, Legree, Mr Collier exhibited very powerful acting. There Was a horrible realism in his cold blooded ferocity that made one’s flesh creep, and his utter fiendishness when he tells his helpless victim that he will kill him inch by inch, was horribly in earnest. Mr South, as the secondary scoundrel, Tom Loker, was a clever companion portrait, though an infusion of comedy into the part rendered it less repulsive. MrMusgrave was careful and conscientious as Mr Shelby, and irresistibly unctuous and amusing in the role of the belligerent Quaker Phineas Von Tromp, Mr Harry Stoneham, as George Harris, played in an earnest, manly style, and added to the succfss of the piece. A number of minor character# were more or less well played, and the negro characters were personated by the colored members of the company. The festivities on a plantation were realised in a highly graphic and lifelike manner, the mad antics and extraordinary gambols of the colored population being kept up with amazing vigour and spirit. A number of hymns and songs with harmonised choruses were introduced in the course of the play, and as far as the manner in which they were sung was concerned, no fault could be found, though the audience were obviously taken aback by the daring innovation of alternating the rampant buffoonery of the comedy people, with the singing of Moody and Sankey’s hymns. The play was well put on the stage, the most effective scenes being the plantation in the first act, the frozen river where Eliza Harris escapes with her child, and the rocky pass which terminates the second act. The tableau of the dying child with the kneeling negroes and the broken hearted father bending over the cot, was exceedingly well grouped, the effect being heightened by the use of the electric light. The piece will be repeated till further notice.