THE “GRIP” COMPANY AT THE THEATRE ROYAL.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4162, 23 July 1874, Page 2

THE “GRIP” COMPANY AT THE THEATRE ROYAL.

It is a pleasure again to see the theatre occupied by a dramatic company ; and it is a still greater pleasure to be able to record that the company is, considering local capacity for patronage, an unexceptionably good one. The “ Grif ” Company, as has been before stated, has for its leading attraction, a young lady named Rosa Towers, of whose merits papers in other parts of the Colony speak in the highest terms. Considering her age, we can do no more than endorse their published opinions. Miss Towers has an expressive face, and, what is perhaps bettor, an expressive eye. She has confidence, soul, verve—taken in its finest meaning ; she is pretty, petite, elegant. She has a clear ringing voice; can sing ■with taste, and sometimes with that peculiar quality which goes home to the heart. She dresses well, and of a necessity looks well. She has all the confidence of a practised professor of the art which her sponsors have adopted for her ; but she has one fault, which may in the future stand like a barrier on her road to fame. She is too conscious of her audience. The gift of becoming great may be hers —possibly is ; but she can never develop it by coming to the footlights, making clap-trap speeches, and spoiling the great desideratum of all acting—unity and possibility. This merely in passing. Miss Towers, as we have intimated, has powers of an undoubted quality, and last night, in Halliday’s drama of “Nobody’s Child,” altered to suit the exigencies of providing parts for certain members of the company, impressed a large andience with the fact. In dealing with her from a critical point of view, it is difficult to determine whether in the time to come she null prefer to assume the pathetic side of the drama or its light one. At present she has a fail' possession of those qualifications necessary to assume both, but perhaps she excels most in the latter. Nevertheless there was great pathos in the scene in which she denounced her mother as unworthy of her regard. As a whole, it may fairly be said that the performance stamps Miss Towers as possessed of much brain power, the full development of which must depend on the future. Of all things she is not that dreadful scourge, a child wonder. She is simply a very engaging little girl, who has been taught her business in some sort well, aud who may one day stand at tho top of her profession ; but she must take care that she does not fall, through too much flattery, like others (notably Anna Maria Quinn) have done before her. With this one advice, it may be said that'the performance of last night was sufficiently attractive to cause the public to watch ■with vivid interest not only for its repetition, but for a further proof of her capacity in new parts. Of the general caste and mounting of the piece, more shall bo said to-morrow.