THE THEATRE ROYAL.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4414, 13 May 1875, Page 2

THE THEATRE ROYAL.

: “ The Geneva Cross ” improves upon acquaintance. Last night the audience were more demonstrative than on any previous occasion, and tire play went from beginning to end evenly and smoothly. Miss May Howard having recovered from the indisposition from which she suffered on Monday evening, played the part of the heroine with a vivacity and grace sufficient to satisfy the most exacting critic. “ The Geneva Cross,” however, is now ■withdrawn to make way for THE NEW MAGDALEN, by Wilkie Collins, as produced at the Olympic Theatre, with unparalleled success, so at least says the playbill. Curiously, enough the play opens in. a cottage on the French and German frontiers, and the dress worn by Miss May Howard in the third act of the “ Geneva Cross,” or one much resembling it, will be the dress in which this lady will first appear as Mercy Merrick. The plot is as follows : —Grace Roseberry (Miss Jessie Raymond), on her way to England, is robbed of her money, jewels, and luggage, and seeks protection, such as it is, in a village occupied by the French, but momentarily in expectation of attack by tho German forces. The attack takes place, the French are beaten, and Grace Roseberry is struck by a piece of a shell and left for dead. This is the opportunity seized by Mercy Merrick (Miss May Howard) to possess herself of the papers and diary of Miss Roseberry, and to personify that lady. This she is the better enabled to do, not being personally known to her only relative in England, Lady Janet Roy (Miss Howard), to whose care she was confided by her father on his deathbed at Rome. The complications arising out of this embroglio may be conceived when it is stated that Grace Roseberry is still alive, and turns up at most inopportune times and places. Tho play is very powerfully written, is full of admirable situations, and will afford ample scope for excellent acting. The most prominent male characters are Horace Holmcroft (Mr. Charles Burford), and Julian Gray (Mr. G, W. Collier), the latter especially being one to excite the sympathies of young ladies who “ go in” for rare, not to say impossible, qualifications in a hero.