THE THEATRE ROYAL.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4388, 13 April 1875, Page 2

THE THEATRE ROYAL.

Under the present management the Theatre Royal is deservedly achieving popularity as a place of amusement, and notwithstanding the counter attractions—and of no mean order either—at the Odd Fellows’ Hall, there was an excellent attendance at the Theatre last evening. “ True Hearts,” a French sensationalism, was presented for the first time. The drama, like all French plays, is exceedingly romantic, embracing in its broad arrangement everything likely to startle and amuse an audience. Its cast of characters is so large as to have afforded the management an opportunity of employing the whole strength of their powerful company, and its successful and satisfactory rendition could not fail to impress on the audience the fact that it had been carefully cast, and as carefully rehearsed. To detail the intricacies of the plot would occupy too much space. Suffice it that Mr. Bates, as Eustache Boudin, played a character, brimful of sentiment, with great effect, Mrs. Bates, as Louise, a wife whom maternal pride had separated from her husband, and whom she wept over as dead, was a touching representation. The audience marked its appreciation both of Mr. and Mrs. Bates’s acting most unmistakeably at the conclusion of each act. The comic parts of the play fell to Miss Raymond and Mr. Hydes, who made their contributions to the general excellence of the performance with all the humor and spirit which characterise all their representations. Mr. Burford enacted Delboise, a low rascal, -with so much tact that he did not fail to point a moral if the character did not adorn the tale. There was sufficient interest in all the minor parts to make them interesting, and in justice to the performers it must be said they were capitally rendered. The evening’s entertainment was concluded by the roaring farce “ Out on the Loose.” The same programme will be repeated this evening.