Plays and Pictures.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 50, 23 February 1912, Page 6

Plays and Pictures.

The H. B. Irving season in Wellington was a brilliant artistic and financial success from beginning to end. "Hamlet," "Louis XL," "The Lyons Mail," and "The Bells " in turn drew crowded houses, the company playing to tho full capacity of the theatre each evening. Tho farewell night, February 12, in particular, attracted an immense crowd, eager to witness Mr. living's magnetic work as the murderhaunted Mutiiias in '"The Bel's." Alas, as theatrical managements are so prone to advertise, "hundreds wero turned away." This time it was literally true. Wo saw them. We were among 'em! There wasn't standing room for a safe-ty-match in the Olympian regions which we usually frequent, and we couldn't spring six bob for tho few vacant places among the elite. If only tho Editor of this rampageous rag were half as fearsome an object in actuality as he is in the minds and imaginations of Fat and Klunkeyism—a monster with eyes like the. flames of Hell, breathing out threatening and,slaughter and tire and brimstone! —a being who thinks Red, sees Red, eats lied, and drinks Red—we might have scared tho attendants into letting us into tho show. As it was, however, we were forced to come away disappointed. * * * AVhy is it that «o many pressmen and printers will persist in writing and setting up the word "caste" in theatrical comments and criticisms when the word "cast" is tho correct one? "Caste" is a class or grade of society; "cast" is tlie distribution or assignment of parts in a play. The Christchurch "Evening News," anyway, should really know better, and yet this inoxcu«ablo error bits us in the eye in a par from our contemp. that lies before us. Another mistake that printers and the publio aro very addicted to is the substitution of "n" for the final ''m" in the word "pantomime." The. death of Miss Edith Crane in America removes a plump and happy lady, who was well known in England, America, and Australasia. She is ))i ,-,t remembered in this country as an effective Trilby of the- rococo school, her husband,' Tyrone Power, doing some cx-"!!i"!i, work in the silken whiskeviugs ni' Kvcngali. Like most Trilbies, Miss Crane made a big reputation on tlie beauty of her feet, her pedal exin■miiies being perfectly fitted for public display on a wP.-lit stage. # * 9 One of the features of tlie pantomime of "Sinbad the Sailor" at Melbourne Theatre Royal is the magnificent chorus and ballet." Tho amount of -'raw material" that offered itself for selection amazed the producer, },\v. ISrcyne, who wanted to know v.-In re. "all the beautiful girls came fiom." The care exercised in the soloe-tiun is seen in the pantomime, which includes a harvest of beauty that has not been. inch.deal in any previous production seen in Australia. It is a veritable beauty hhow, which Mr. Stey.no considers could not be excelled in London or New York. "I ought to knew what 1 am talking

about," says Mr. Steyne, "for I have been producing plays for just a fewyears, and thiH is my nineteenth panto. If tho whole of the 'Sinbad' girls were shipped to London or New York they would wipe the local chorus girls off the stage. In all my experiences 1 have never seen anything to come up to the 'Sinbad' chorus and ballet."

Madame Sara Bernhardt denies that she is to be married again, either sooner or later. Says the "divine Sara": "I am a mother, a grandmother, and a great-grandmother. J am the joyful and proud possessor of these three titles: they render all comment unnecessary."

' Vaudeville, with Fasola the Great as star performer, has again replaced tho picture form of entertainment at Fuller's Opera House, Auckland. The change will be relished, for there is an overabundance- of pictures just now, comments "Sport." And so say we. Vaudeville would be welcomed in Welltnjjton, we fool sure.

Miss Ethel Irving adds to her gifts as an actress a wonderful play of facial expression, which depicts all phases of character and temperament and all moods. The J. G. Williamson management have no fewer than 24 different photographs of Miss Irving, ami in each of them she looks quito different. No two phases of expression are alike.

Joseph BlascliO'.k, the humorist, was asked by an Auckland scribe how his name was pronounced. Replied he : "Although it ma,' seem difficult to pronounce when you take it in the bulk thus, B-lasehcck, just divide it in the middle, and you will see at once that it is quito simple, thus—Bias-check. It is strange how people stumble over my name. I have been called by all sorts of strange variations of the uaino at different times— lilue-jack, Black-cheek, Blars-chuck, Blows-chick, aud ahl Pan Godfrey, the famous bandmaster, used to call' mc in his good-humored, jocular way 'Blasted-cheek.' " Joe is an Englishman, and was bom in London, but the name is a Bohemian name, his father, though English-born, being of Bohemian extraction. . w m Auckland "Sport" dropped into "po'try" in welcoming Miss Ethel Irving. Hero's a verso from the poetic panegyric:— No greater actress has Now Zealand seen— Tn all tho garden, not a flower fairer: No woman holds such laurel-garland green.— And Australia had Bernhardt (the famous Sara!). In Sara's work was something tragic: In Ethel living's there,-.; a quiet, magic. * » * AHan Hamilton's "Beauty and the Barge" Company will open in L'hristehiirch on February 28. Tho Australian newspapers have, been unanimous in piuising the presentation. The "Svdncy Morning Herald" went so fatas to say the Allan Hamilton combination suffered nothing by comparison with the Broughs, who played it, six or seven years ago. And how well they did it is a matter net easily to be forgotten. The comedy itself is bright, breeav, clean, and really delightful.