THEATRE ROYAL.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4454, 29 June 1875, Page 2

THEATRE ROYAL.

The production of Shakspere's comedy "As You Like It" last evening was an immense success, and the theatrical public of Wellington may fairly claim to have redeemed the reputation for taste which, to a certain extent, was sacrificed by the miserable fiasco in point of an audience attending the first performance of a Shaksperian piece by the Hoskins company. Every available seat in the Theatre was occupied before eight o'clock, a very large number being obliged to stand. And here it may not be out of place to remark upon the accommodation afforded by the Theatre. Before the alterations recently made, a tolerably numerous audience could not be so seated as to allow all a view of the stage, but under the new arrangement, as demonstrated last night, be the house ever so crowded all except those few who occupy the seats at the extreme end on either side have a full view of the whole stage. But to proceed. We doubt if any management in Australia could produce the comedy under notice with so strong a cast as that which'played it last night. Certain it is that New Zealand has never previously witnessed a representation approaching it in completeness. Six of the leading characters were assumed by star artists, and the more important supporting parts were excellently filled. As they made their bows for the first time, Mr. and Mrs. Darrell and Mr. Douglas were greeted with a very hearty welcome, and marks of appreciation were freely bestowed upon them as the piece proceeded. Mrs. DarreU's Rosalind was a first-class performance throughout, but she was most brilliant in the two last acts. Her manner and gesture, and ever-varying expression and exquisite modulation of voice, discovered to the audience many hidden beauties of sentiment and wit which an ordinary reader of the text would fail to detect. There was no want of freedom, and no appearance of acting, for Mrs. Darrell has learned that the " art of art is to conceal art." Mr. Darrell is no less worthy of praise. As melancholy Jaques he was exceedingly effective; most of his deliverances denoted plenty of hard study, his rendering of " All the world's a stage," &c, being given with such good taste as to completely bring down the house. Mr. Douglas played a very vigorous Orlando. His staffe appearance, and fine round flexible voice, are much in his favor and no one was more appreciated by the audience than he. Mrs. Hill had a part well suited to her in Celia, and Miss Anstead's very humorous rendering of Audrey, in company with an equally happy impersonation of Touchstone by Mr. Hoskins, kept; the house convulsed with laughter when they figured on the scene. Miss Marion Moore's songs "Under the Greenwood Tree" and "Blow thou Winter Winds" were well received, and Messrs. Booth, Buvford, and Hesford, and some of the other members of the company, were well up in their parts. To-night "The Lady of Lyons," -with as powerful a cast (comparatively speaking) as jjlayed, in "As ~Y"ou Like It," will be performed.