THE NEW DRAMATIC SEASON.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5633, 19 April 1879, Page 3

THE NEW DRAMATIC SEASON.

As already intimated in our columns, a new dramatic season will be inaugurated at the Imperial Opera House on Monday evening next, when Mr. Creswick, who is admittedly one of the greatest Shakesperian exponents of the age, will make his bow to a Wellington audience. Mr. Creswick will be supported by Miss Helen Ashton, a London actress, by the old favorites Mr. and Mrs. George Darrell, and by a powerful company of recognised artists. The play in which Mr. Creswick and company will make their debut is “King Lear;” and the active advance courier, Mr. Sam Edwards, has been making every preparation in order that things may be comme il faut on the opening night. The following biography of the new star, from a Melbourne journal, cannot fail to be interesting to those who are in the habit of patronising dramatic representations : Mr. Creswick is a native of London —born not far from Covent Garden. He entered upon a Thespian life as a grown boy, and having excellent natural qualifications, he rose rapidly, and by the time he was 24 he was the leading tragedian on the York circuit —at that time a position of distinction. His provincial fame having been fully established, be was offered engagements by London managers, but he declined them, and his marriage with Miss Paget, who was at that time an actress of note under Madame Vestris’s management at the Olympic, occurring, he accepted a lucrative offer to visit theXJnited States, from whence, after a triumphant tour, he returned to fulfil engagements in Dublin, Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool, and Newcastle. The time had now approached for the event so much longed for, yet so much dreaded. ’ He was to undergo the cruical ordeal of a London audience, and he accordingly made his first appearance at Sadler’s Wells, then under the management of Mr. Phelps, in the character of Hotspur (“ Henry IV.”). His advent was so successful that on the termination of his season he was engaged for the Princess’ to support Miss Fanny Kemble, who had then returned to the stage. His abilities were now fully recognised ; The Times took him up, and in commenting on his performance of Borneo it remarked: —“ Barely, if ever, has the stage witnessed such an electric and startling denouement. Acting of such high order stamps Mr. Creswick as a tragedian of the highest class.” Having finished a starring tour with Miss Kemble with the greatest success, Mr. Creswick accepted an engagement at the Haymarket, then under Mr. Benjamin Webster's managsment, and here he remained until he entered into partnership with Mr. Shepherd as co-lesee and manager of the Surrey Theatre. The power and refinement of his acting raised the standard of the house immensely and it became the moat popular in that portion of the metropolis. In 1862 he retired from the management, and fulfilled several starring engagements, and in 1864 he went to Drury Lane, where he achieved his grandest triumphs. From Drury he rejoined his old partner, Mr. Shepherd at the Surrey, and it was during the three years’ alliance which followed that T. P. Cooke’s prize drama, “ True to the Core,” was produced with such eclat, tor a second time he resigned the management of the Surrey to perform starring engagements in London and the provinces, and again he sailed for America for a short season at Boston, in company with Mr. James Bennett and Walter Montgomery, the three English tragedians, as they were called, attracting the largest audiences ever known in Boston. On his return, he and Mr. Phelps were engaged by Mr. F. B. Chattertcn for the Princess’, and for three months these renowned actors kept the house crammed. Mr. Creswick is still in the zenith of his powers, and he appears to possess all the lightness and elegance of a young man. “ Time ” has, indeed, dealt lightly with him, and those who recollect him at Home will say at once on seeing him, “ Why, he is not a bit altered.” As Othello, lago. King Lear, Macbeth, Eiohard 111., Virginias, and such characters, Mr. Creswick ranks with the most illustrious exponents of those parts, and those who visit him here will have the pleasure of seeing a man who, in the concluding words of the valedictory notice published in the Mva of the 13th May, is “ a true artist, a faithful servant to the public, a good fellow, and a perfect gentleman.”