"Fun on the Bristol"

Horowhenua Chronicle, 22 September 1915, Page 2

"Fun on the Bristol"

* LAST MGHT'S FUN. Fur something like fifteen yeans Mr George Stephenson has been connected with theatrical enterprise, and a firm belief, founded on many experiences of the fact, has grown up among those who go to plays that for plays and players Stephenson Company is at the top, hence the largo audience that turned up at the King's Theatre, last evening, to witness the Stephenson production of "Fun on the Bristol," the merry musical farce that tho late John F. Sheridan made his own. "Fun oil the Bristol" is a loosely-woven thing; the sort of thing that grows, and permits the grafting to it of topical songs and references to present day attains, without in any way losing anything of its old fun and merriment. So it was that last night many of those who had seen it played by John L l '. .Sheridan found that though the play varied .slightly in places. Widow.O'Brien, the black steward, the oashfnl and the Count "Menagerie" were the safe old characters, and the audience laughed as heartily as they did ill fill's gone by. 'I'he widow'*; recital of W?r marital adventures, and comments ■ '•hereon, her quaint misunderstanding 'of ordinary words, ami the attempts .if her daughters to correct her, her con* duct at the music lessons, and her anxiety to know if there was some "'you know" in the soda-water brought to her on the ship liristol by the black steward, were splendidly acted by Mr l ( rank Hawthorne, 'who has taken up the part and maintains it at the high level established by its founder, and who got the maximum amount of humour out of the character. As Jerry Thompson, the blade steward, Mr Ernie Dellovalo was extremely funny, and with Mr \\ ill Gilbert, as Tom Cranberry, the bashful boy, kept the audience in continuous laugher, during the second act, when tho widow kept bo ■■ her cabin in a woe-begone state with a J 1 lie-belt around her 'waist, and again ior a soda-water with some "you know" in it. '.Miss Annie Berriil and Miss ivy Davis, as tlio widow's daughters, acted naturally and sang sweetly. Miss Davis perlonned extra well when dressed as a "middy." The dancing of Miss Bertha Busch, in the second half, was good, and her acting as Holla iu the first added to tlie fun. Mr Frederick Hughes, Count Mannagio. gavo the singing lessons to the widow's daughters. and kept a. blight look-out for a possible wile with plenty of money. Mr Arthur Sharpies as Captain Cranberry and Mr Courtney Ford, as Itichard iSparks. played their parts satisfactorily. The musical items throughout the piece were good and much appredated by the audience, and it -was a crowd of happy people that left tho theatre.about 10.30.

It will internet theatre pat I<> know that "Mother Goose," tlx? great pantomime, will In- staged in Levin by Mr George StcplicnsoiT next December.