MR WILLMOTT'S COMBINATION

Kumara Times, Issue 1992, 17 January 1883, Page 2

MR WILLMOTT'S COMBINATION

"THE GUVNOR." Taking all things into consideration, there may be said to have been a fair attendance at the Theatre Royal last evening ; and well and heartily did they who went to hear the celebrated comedy " The Guv'nor" as performed by Mr Frank Willmott's Combination enjoy themselves. Never for years do we remember to have seen such general and continuous good humour and laughter manifested by an audience as seemed to permeate the assemblage on this occasion. It may be interesting to give a short sketch of the plot, which is as follows: Mr Butterscotch, The Guv'nor, is a retired pastry cook, and his second wife Mrs B. is much his junior. By his first marriage The Guv'nor has a grownup son Freddy, with an impediment in his speech, as also a very charming daughter Kate. A Paul-Pryish individual, Jelico, from over the garden wall, sees Theodore Macclesfield, Freddy's j friend, Kate's lover, and the son of a deaf old boat-builder of Putney and of the same name, pay clandestine visits to the Butterscotch Villa, and informs The Guv'noi. Gregory, the groom, makes his appearance, and is mistaken by The Guv'nor for a son of an old friend of his; and in the height of his

jealousy, being further augmented by finding a top coat which he believes to be young Macclesfield's, he tries to get his daughter Kate to marry the groom Gregory. Then we find Freddy proposing to Carrie Macclesfield, through her mother. Now, old Macclesfield, the boatbuilder, has just completed a yacht and named her the " Carrie," and, when Fred comes to ask for his ,daughter thinks he has a customer for his boat and confusion ensues. Just after the departure of the son The Guv'uor comes on (bearing, as he thinks, old Mac's coat) ; the old man thinks he has agreed to the marriage ; The Guv'nor thinks he has found the destroyer of his peace, and asks him to call at his house to make such arrangements as will prevent public disgrace. They meet together, the rightful owner turning up for the top coat — M'Toddy. The lawyer is there to draw up the separation, instead of which he draws up marriage settlements for the two young couples. Light dawns on The Guv'nor, but the rest, including the one that " can't hear a bloomin' word," are oblivious to the last.

Mr John Hesford (to whose abilities as stage manager the success of the piece is greatly due) played the difficult part of The Guv'nor as only a proficient could. Mr Ptede, as Freddy (his son, age 22) and Mr Jas. Wilkinson, as the quaint and deaf old boatbuilder, kept the audience in roars of laughter, by the continual mistakes be made by reason of his defective hearing. Well played were the minor parts by Messrs Herman, Marter, and Simmonds, Stewart, and Brooke. Of the ladies in this Combination we cannot speak too highly. They are remarkably proficient. Miss Lawrence (as Wife of Old Mac', with a big voice), Miss Crawford (as Carrie, her daughter), Miss Nelson (as Aurelia, wife to Butterscotch) and Miss Amy Johns (as Butterscotch's daughter by the first Mrs B—), were all truthful to life in their respective characters, and received in turn frequent and well-merited applause. The Misses Howard, too, are deserving of mention in the minor parts of servant and butler. Considering the limited time the artists could have had, the scenery and effects were good, and particularly so was the scene in the first act—the Garden at Butterscotch's Villa.

To-night "Uncle Tom's Cabin," specially written and adapted for this Company from Mrs Harriet Beecher Stowe's celebrated work of that name, by Mr Frank M. Willmott, will be produced on a scale of completeness and. care as to detail never before attempted in the Colonies. It will be under the direct supervision and direction of Mr John Hesford, the clever stage manager to the company; and it should draw a bumper house.

We cannot close without a word of praise to the enterprise of Mr Willmott himself, than whom a correspondent on Monday observed—" a more enterprising and gentlemanly, and I may add, a more straightforward and honourable man than Mr Willmott himself is not to be found in the profession." Mr Willmott has brought a large and very talented Combination at great cost to the Coast, and it seems to be his greatest pleasure, even though he be at a loss by it, to see his audience pleased, as was seen to be the case last night from beginning to end.