Dramatic and Musical

Free Lance, Volume IV, Issue 195, 26 March 1904, Page 11

Dramatic and Musical

By Footlight.

AT the Opera House, ' The Shaughraun" was put up on St. Patrick's Night to capital business, and was also lun for the two following nights. The Holloway Dramatic Company appeared to great advantage in it, and they certainly mounted the play in a style that was quite worthy of its reputation. Mr. J. P. O'Neill made a very decided hit as Conn, the Shaughraun. He looked the part, the brogue came from his tongue rich and racy of the soil, and there was no need to force the acting to tickle the audience. It was a congenial put and Mr. O'Neill wore it like a well-fitting glove. • * * Mr. Vivian Edwards, as Captain Molyneaux, looked a striking military masher, but was metaphorically lacedin too tightly. Miss Beatrice Hollo--ftay as Moya, was a- charming type of the Irish colleen, and Miss Ida Gresham as Claire Ffolhott, and Miss Irby Marshall as Arte O'Neil, did full justice to their respective parts. * • ♦ Mr. Chas. Holloway was well suited in the part of Father Doolan, the benevolent village priest, and Miss Alice Deorwyn (Mrs. Hollow i^ scored heavily in the role of the Widow O'Kelly (Conn's mother). Mr. Hodson, as Corry Kinchela, did a good deal of talking, in a very loud tone of voice, and a food deal of strutting with bis ha-nds in is trousers' pockets, but it was impossible to forget he was on the stage. Mr. Stanford's Harvey Duff was a good portraiture on the traditional lines, and Mr. Godfery Cass invested the part of Robert Ffolhott with a good deal of interest. The "wake" scene was very effectively carried out, the # well-known dncre "Och oolaghaun" being sung in a style that showed it had been carefully rehearsed. » * * "The Assassin" is the rather far-fetch-ed title of the melodrama which held the boards for the first three nights of this week. After cramming four acts full of assorted cold-blooded villainy, ai.d getting snubs and insults from all sorts of characters, Prince Demetn receives a dageer in the lungs from a much-tried woman who, under the circumstances, hardly deserves the title of assassin. Even, the comiron cr garden variety of coroner's jury would call it justifiable homicide. * • « The leading characters are this female Nemesis, otherwise the Countess Wanda (Miss Ida Gresham) and Prince Demetn (Mr. Stanford), and the whole plot unwinds its many knots and involutions in St. Petersburg, amid suggestions of suow and ice, the tramp of armed men, the sound of occasional sleigh-bells, the gleam of lights from the Winter Palace, and the help of a motley crowd, made up of Russian soldiers and police, an Irish captain, an American belle, a French baron, and a Slavonic 'Arry and 'Amet. The Prince starts operations by tricking the Countess into, signing an agreement to marry him. But, before it can be made binding by the official stamp, she discovers the' deceit, and, to save herself, mames a Russian soldier just in the nick of time. The parson beats the stamp office by a couple of minutes. After that, the foiled Prince makes the pace warm for all hands and the next two* acts culminate' m a very willing; duel with swords, in which the Countess very prettily mnks Demetn through the shoulder. Miss Gresham fences just as cleverly as her husband, and the bout was neat and businesslike. The fourth act spreads itself over the Palace Square, the vestibule of the Imperial Opera House and the Grand Saloon, and, as before-mentioned the Countess Wanda scores- the winning try by planting her stiletto up to the hilt near the Prince's base heart. * # • Miss Gresham and Mr. Stanford sus^tamed the burden of the serious acting, and Mr. Godfrey Cass spoke fiercely and m approved staccato style as a Russian chief of police must always do. Mr. Vivian Edwards, as the soldier who loves and marries the Countess, looted heroic, and filled his uniform to advantage, which was the marjor part of his role. There was much comedy, from hght to low, to bridge over the various sensations and let the audience smooth their rumpled emotions. Mr. J. P. O'Neill was the Irish captain too timid

to pop the question to Miss Irby Marshall's American hen ess, who cimes out that contract herself. Miss Alice ' Deoiwyn was a very peit young Russian housemaid, and Mr. Frank Hawthorne's Russian valet who joins the secret police and waltzes around with a large note-book and pencil, broke the audiI ence up into sDasms of laughter. Baion «J Alphonse (Mr. Hudson), with hi>s demonstrative and elderly ecstasies of love and his hair dyed green, also aided the cause of mirth. Like all the Hollow «iy pjoduct-ons the piece was handsomely mounted, and the act on was smoothness itself. "The Shadows of a Great City" is billed for the rest of the week. * ♦ * Johnny Fuller, laid temporarily aside l,y influenza, is again at the helm of His Majesty's, and consequently offending particles of show have been duly pruned. Patrons much apprec.ate the added eomfoit of the dainty little house of amusement, and surging ciowds each night delight in the variety of sights and sounds that charm the eye and ear, or words to that effect. * • * Fred Bluett, the irresistible comedian, with the interchangeable featuies, has gleaned some new 7 vocal items, and ii launching them with olitime effect oil a susceptible audience. Mr. Dick Davis is an imitator of some note. His forte is comic seriousness, and a don't-care-a-hang style that suits his striking physiognomy well. Jo© Cowan is a. 1 feckless young chap, who is wound up to go indefinitely, and the audience* is always glad to see Joe slow down without injury to himself. Mr. Cowan belongs to the indefatigable type of comedian. * * * The Driscolls, fitted with restless lr^s and large lung power, twinkle tluough their long "turn." The lady part of the show is up to the standard. The wee Bertotoes, tiny tots in. short socks, are quoted at par. and the light and airy vocalist and danseuse, Ida Berrjdsre is again smiling a smile of uaearthly sweetness, and showing a very pearly set of teeth, bounded on the north by a ruby lip, and similarly finished off on the south. Vocalists of the serious order, with well-trained voices and evening clothes, assist the melody branch of the entertainment, whilei the dashing blonde, Millie Clare, is absolutely essential to add piquancy to a good performance. * # ♦ A bazaar and concert, in aid of the Home for Incurables, is to be held in, the Kilbirnie Schoolroom on Friday next, the 25th instant, to be opened at 2.30 &m. by W. H. P. Barber, Esq., .H.R. There is to be fun for allfancy costumes, magic lantern, and competitions of various kinds. * • • Miss Fitzmaurice Gill is to open her season at the Opera House next week in "The Bank of England," one of the latest London successes. Sherlock Holmes, the detective, is introduced into this drama, and is one of its leading personages. A great deal of the action of the drama takes place in the historic precincts of the Bank of England, and! the various scenes show the working of this old institution. The models for the scenery were copied from photographs taken by special permission of the Governor of the Bank. Miss Gill has received '"The Bank of England" direct from Mr. W. J. Holloway, London, and holds the sole Australasian rights. The piece received its Australian premier during Miss Gill's season at the Palace Theatre, Sydney, and won much praise from the press. It has been the trump card of the tour so far. » * * Mr. Harry W. Diver (well-known in Wellington) and Mrs. Diver (Helene Burdette) are taking out a, diamatic company of their own on tour in Victoria They open in Ballarat at Eastei with 'Man to Man." « * * ■ Maskelyne and Cook, whose fame at the favourite games of mystifiers, conjurers, and illusionists has spread from the Egyptian Hall to the four corners ot the earth are now preparing for a descent upon the colonies. Much of their best material will not be new goods here, as hundreds of their tricks have been given us in one form or another by all sorts of wizards. # * * Miss Nance Slapoffski, the girl whom Geo. Musgrove wouldn't have in his opera company for New Zealand (and hence the celebrated lawsuit), has lately been m Adelaide with a pantomime j company. The "Critic" describes her as "a small thin girl, with a big nose, and large prominent eyes. Her style of dress accentuates her appearance, being most theatrical." ti • * * Says the Sydney "Newsletter" — Miss Frances Ross (Mrs. Wallace) received news by the last New Zealand b mail of the death of her son Dudley, a jy promising youth of twenty. Miss Dagmar Ross, a clever girl, very much like her mother in appearance, is one of New Zealand's rising landscape painters. Miss Frances Ross is one of Bland Holt's leading ladies.