AT THE PLAY.

Patea Mail, 21 March 1882, Page 3

AT THE PLAY.

‘■Our Boys’’ was played with marked success last evening at the Harmonic Hall It is a pity, and somewhat of a reflection, that so worthy a performance by a good company was not encouraged by an audience adequate to the occasion. The hall could not be called half full, the front seats being thinly occupied. Yet this was the best dramatic company that has visited the district, there being seven acting members, five of them very good, and two or three of those

excellent in parts. We have seen this amusing comedy performed twice by the original London company who made it famous, and it is not too much to say that the leading parts were acted last night in a manner that left little to be desired, while the general result was a pleasing surprise. The comedy ought to have been a treat to an audience of average appreciation ; and the frequent explosions of hearty laughter, varying the more frequent titter, showed that this clever satire on human weaknesses had hit the mark last night. The company managed to arrange frequent changes of scenery that were novel and effective.

Middlewick, the retired butterman with plenty of money but no A’s in his shoppy talk, was cleverly impersonated by Mr G. W. Herbert, who played the drunken Eccles in “ Caste ” on Saturday. Middlewick is the character of the piece ; and as a foil to set off his genial low-bred eccentricities, he is constantly contrasted with “ old poker back,” Sir Geoffery Champneys, the aristocratic parent who illustrates the eccentricities of his class. The wealthy bntterman and the wealthy baronet have sons who have chummed together at college ; the bntterrnan’s son being handsome, clever, good-hearted ; whereas the baronet’s son is a weedy youth whose chief joys are smoking, playing billiards, shunning ladies’ company, and having a good think in a mopish way by himself. The comedy depends for its point On these strong contrasts between parents and between sons. The boys fall in love with the wrong girls ; the baronet’s son preferring the sprightly, leasing, penniless cousin who humors his weaknesses; while the butterman’s son has an intense passion for the highborn, austere, scornful, but ardent beauty who ought to have loved the other boy, but couldn’t and wouldn’t. The baronet raves at the mad folly of his son in refusing a match so carefully arranged for him. The butterman “cuts up rough,” as he calls it, because Miss High-and-Mighty has been contemptuous towards the “ old dad,” and made fun of his “ eddycasbun.” With all these incongruous elements refusing to mix, the fat is soon in the fire. Both boys are turned adrift, penniless, for disobeying their parents so outrageously in choosing wrong girls. The fathers, left alone, mope and fume by turns; but eventually they seek the outcast boys in London, find them starving proudly in a garret (the girls having gone there also on the same sly errand); and after fresh misunderstandings and more casting-off for ever, the old butterman melts (though the weather is not hot), and the stiff old baronet melts, and the girls melt (in the boys’ arms), and the servant with her smutty face melts, and there is a chorus of joy and tears and forgiveness. Mr Herbert as the butterman, Mr Rode as the baronet, were excellent and could hardly be bettered; Miss Amy Johns looked aS austere and pretty as the part required, while her singing of “ Killarney ” (in another part) is a treat to hear; Miss Lizzie Lawrence was nice and winsome as the pretty penniless cousin ; Mr Jewett was handsome and intense as the buttei'man’s clever son who would mate with the haughty heiress ; and Miss Jenny Nye was immensely funny as the lodging-house slavey with mop hair and smutty face and cast-off navvy’s boots. The burlesque of “ Somnarabula,”

which appeals to an opera-going audience, was repeated last night.

The company give a final performance to-night; “ O’Oallaghan on his last legs,” a piece in which Mr Herbert is distinguished ; some songs as an interlude; ami a lively farce, “The Area Belle.”