STAGE DUEL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 839, 14 May 1910, Page 3

STAGE DUEL.

FULLFR PARTICULARS.

Sydney papers give the following details of the realistic stage duel) at the Criterion Theatre (mentioned in the cable messages last week) in which Mr Oscar Asche and Mr Gerald K. Souper were the principals: —“ The two actors were fighting hard, for the duel, which is fought with swords and poiguards, is a strenuous conflict throughout. It was iu the third stage, just before the incident in which Count Hannibal (Mr Asche) sweeps the candelabra from the table, that he lunged at his opponent and the point of the sword struck him at the side of the left eye. The skin was penetrated, and the point passing through emerged above the eyebrow, blood pouring from the wound. With his face bathed in blood, and hardly able to see, Mr Souper valiantly kept his blade flashing before Count Hannibal, and ouce got so close that his weapon scratched Mr Asche’s neck, and the point came through his shirt collar. The audience breathlessly watched the conflict eager to see whether Mr Souper could hold out to the end before receiving the vanishing blow from Count Hannibal; but this he did, and when the fight was over the audience accorded the plucky actor an ovation, Mr Souper lost much blood, as the state of the stage indicated, and was very weak when he appeared next night.”