CONCERT AND PLAY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3769, 11 July 1907, Page 3

CONCERT AND PLAY.

To-night. The concert and play, in aid of All Saints’ Church Choir, will take place in the Public Hall, this evening. The concert programme, which has been drawn up by Mr Betty, and which appears elsewhere in this issue, is a varied one, and comprises some high-class items which alone should attract a large audience. We were permitted last night to witness a full-dress rehearsal ot the humorous breach of promise case, Bardell v. Pickwick, and we have no hesitation in saying it is screamingly funny from first to last. The make-ups of the various characters are ludicrous in the extreme. Before the Court proceedings open the various characters make themselves acquainted with the audience, as they wend their way to the Court. When the curtain is raised Pickwick, Perker, and Winkle are disclosed in conversation, when the inimitable Sara Weller appears, and reminds Pickwick that the cab awaits to convey him to the Court. Sergt. Buzfuz (counsel for the plaintiff) and Sergt. Snubbin (counsel for the defendant) are obstructed on their way courtwards by the irrepressible reporter in search of news. Then a gorgeously attired female, Elizabeth Cluppins, who is in search of her friend Mrs Bardell, accosts a passer-by as to the whereabouts of the latter, but almost immediately the portly form of Mrs Bardell looms up, accompanied by her little boy. The two ladies embrace and move on. Then the man in blue pilots the jury, a motley crew, to the Court. The next scene discloses the interior of the Court, where all is confusion, seats allotted, and order subsequently restored when the judge appears. The jury answer to their several and awful names, and the case is called on and continued to the end amidst judicious business. The whole affair is extremely funny, and is guaranteed to keep the audience merry.