AMUSEMENTS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 59, 5 March 1912, Page 4

AMUSEMENTS.

HIS MAJESTY’S THEATRE. It was a pity the new dress circle was not available to hold part of the crowd that last night filled Bernard’s to the very doors. “The Double Event” proved a great attraction, and nobody was disappointed with it. There is no flicker, and the scenes are so taken as to reveal the touch of the master hand somewhere behind the camera. The story of ‘The Double Event” is well known, for the book is one of the most popular of Nat Gould’s productions. It gives numberless opportunities for fine dramatic situations, and these the Australia actors and actresses are not slow to take advantage of. In the opening portion there is a thrilling scene when Jack overtakes Captain Drayton, who is eloping with the hero’s fiance,' ahd is severely wounded. Ike Thurton, the trainer, comes'to his master’s assistance. In Australia, where Jack secretly has decided it were betterfor the family name that he,should go, as Jack Marston, the hero, meets Edith Kingdon the daughter of a wealhty Sydney bookmaker. Then Caloola, tne future winner of the Melbourne Derby and Cup, appears on the scene. Jack gets rid of his trainer, Fletcher, and sends to England for Ike Thurston, in the hone that a skilful preparation will enable him to get , an' outsider home to victory. ,'iue discarded trainer, with two* bookmakers, endeavour to “nobble” the favourite. Then they try to square the jockey, and finally hocuss him. Thurston comes to the rescue, and brings hff a great win. The natural sequence is that Jack marries Edith Kingdon and returns in triumph to England. Fletcher, after murdering the girl who was his tool, but had entered a new life as Lady Mayfield, dies a violent death by falling over the parapet of a roof.

The film is followed throughout by Mr Alf Boothman, who has spoken the piece in most of the big centres. Mr Boothman received 1 a very good hearing, and his presence was a decided acquisition to the"full enjoyment of the film. The supporting pictures are of the usual high-class order. “The “Culture of Bulbous Flowers” is of decided interest to horticulturists, apart from the exquisite beauty of the film. Two good dramas, two fine scenics, and a similar number of comics complete the best programme yet screened at His Majesty’s. To-night the same bill will be given, MISS MARIE BAINES. “Miss Lancashire, Limited,” which is to be presented at the Town Ha\ on Friday night by Miss Marie Baines and a new English company, is a farce-comedy in two acts, with musical features, and it breathes tlm wnr’> of the music hall throughout. The jtprj; is one of mistaken identity ana impersonation. Eva Lancashire is the heiress of certain estates held in trust for her by John Higgins. She is about to come into her own, and a condition of her father’s will is that she should marry Higgins’ son, Harry. On the day of her arrival, the new housemaid, Mary Ellen Thompson, a lass from Lancashire, also makes her appearance, and is mistaken for the heiress. The opportunity is seized 1 by Eva Lancashire to take the place of the maid, and in that humble capacity to observe independently the character of him who has been chosen as her future husband. The fun commences with the reception of the boisterous Mary Ellen by the family, the adventures of the nseudo-lady in high society” being ludicrous in the extreme. The .next development in the floating of_ “Miss Lancashire” into a .| lm ' liability company, with the aid of Mr Herbert Fox, a shrewd solicitor, whose eccentric figure might have been conceived in the brain of John Leech. The prodigal manner m which the young womgn distributes shares among her friends, and uses them as a medium of currency, later becomes a matter of anxious concern to the promoters. John Henry Thompson, a bucolic farmer, comes down London to look for his lass and is fcP* lowed by Ins Irish wife. Complications ensue upon the visit of Moses Goldberg, who has come from America to dun young Higgins for money lent, and tor a time the house is in a true farcical uproar. Eventually the tangled skein is unravelled, the love affair turns out as originally planned, and everything ends up "happily. The box plan is at Grubb’s.