THE KUMARA DRAMATIC COMPANY.

Kumara Times, Issue 2713, 2 June 1885, Page 2

THE KUMARA DRAMATIC COMPANY.

BENEFIT FOR CARLSTROM. + The entertainment announced for to-morrow evening at the Adelphi Theatre by the Kumara Dramatic Company for the benefit of Andrew Carlstrom is one that should draw a large house. Carlstrom, as is well known, has been an inmate of the Hospital for about two and a-half years, suffering from paraplegy, and it is proposed now to send him to the hot springs in the North Island, where he may receive such treatment as may possibly restore him to a comp'ete state of health. At all events we have intimation that one who was afflicted precisely as Carlstrom is, has hy this means been perfectly restored to health. The expenses will be heavy, but the proceeds will be given to one or other of the benevolent institutions and will therefore be supplemented by the Government in the same ratio. The Dramatic Club has kindly come forward to assist in the matter, and will reproduce the pieces they played last week, viz, the comedy “The Man to Suit,” and the farce “ The Alderman’s Mistake.” The comedy is very amusing; the following is a short description of the plot;— “ The piece opens with Elise (Miss Conrick) enjoying herself in an easy chair, when the gentle Anatole Latour (Mr A. Singer), her lover, comes to see her. Elise, who is inclined to be rather coquetish, enjoys the gentle Anatole’s discomfiture when he asks her for some slight encouragement. The Baron de Beaupre (Mr H. Hope), who is an avaricious and grasping old man, who is afraid if his niece Josephine (Mrs L. J. Bpyer) does not marry Colonel Pierre Marcieu (Mr C. M‘Keegan) he will lose all his estates; for such were the conditions laid down by the Emperor that Josephine was to marry the Colonel within three months, otherwise the Baron’s estates would be forfeited to the nation ; and the Baron now appears to try and impress upon Joeepliino (who is very proud of her biith) the importance of such a match. When the Colonel arrives to conduct

Josephine to the hymeneal alter, she refuses to see him at first; but the Baron (afraid of his estates) is delighted with him. And the Colonel, seeing Elise, at first fancies she is the one he is about to marry, when, recollecting he has nursed Elise when an infant, makes much of her, to the general discomfiture of La tour, Elise, bein<* so taken by the Colonel’s uniform, determines to marry a soldier, “ and nothing but a soldier.” The Colonel not being such a “ bear ” as Josephine imagines, she marries him, and while they are at church, Phillipean (Mr J. H. Shrives) and Madame Phillipeau (Mrs Shrives), the Colonel’s cousins, arrive, and give Elise all the details of what happened at the farm since she left them to live with the Baron. They are, indeed, a very funny old couple, and their dialogue is very droll. The Colonel, on arriving home from church, shakes hands with all, and kisses the market-women in the street. Josephine is in a great way over it, and determines to assert her authority over her husband, and refuses to acknowledge Phillipeau and his wife as her relations; consequently the Colonel, who likes the old couple, appeals to Josephine to welcome them, but she refuses all overtures, and the Colonel who has to start for his regiment the next day, leaves her the same night he is married, to punish her. When Josephine finds her husband gone, she sees her error and welcomes Phillipeau and “ dame” with open arras. Latour hearing of Elisa’s determination to marry a soldier, gives up the law, and enters the army to gain her hand. The Colonel is determined to punish Josephine for her disobedience; and, having a brother a lawyer, he gives out he is dead, borrows his brother’s wig, and comes to Josephine as the Colonel’s executor. The Baron, believing the Colonel dead, expects to drop in for a slice of the Colonel’s fortune; but, finding he gets nothing but an “ expression of gratitude” left him, he calls it all “humbug,” Josephine, acting in the assurance that the Colonel is her husband’s brother, believes he has the same opinion of her as the Colonel. He prepares to read the will, when he finds by the words Josephine utters how she loves her husband. He is then almost inclined to tell her who he i.°, but he decides to punish her more before he reveals himself. Elise, seeing the Colonel dressed as a lawyer, pivfers the lawyer to a soldier. The consequence is that when Latour arrives from the war, he finds she wants to marry a lawyer, and fancies she is in love with the disguised Colonel. Of course there is a scene between the disguised Colonel and Latour, and the Colonel, finding how matters are, decides on keeping up the joke awhile longer The household,, aroused by the noise of the Colonel and Latour quarreling, arrive on the scene, when the Colonel, finding how his wife loves him, throws off the mask, and of course general explanations and congratulations follow.”