AMUSEMENTS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 72, 2 April 1913, Page 5

AMUSEMENTS.

HIS MAJESTY’S THEATRE. Thursday’s programme at His Majesty’s Theatre is stated to be as good as any yet screened here. “The Pirate’s Daughter,” figures largely in the series. Dirigo plans a last voy 7 - age, upon which he takes his daughter. She learns of his mode of life and berates him for exposing her to indignities. Some time after, Dirigo and his men are seen by the coastguards, and in the fight that ensues the pirate is killed. The three remaining guards row to the ship, and two are killed at the direction of Almita. The third guard rows away, but the pirates upset a lamp and the ship fires. Seeing a woman on hoard the guard rows hack, but the ruffians seize the guard’s boat and he is compelled to swim to her aid. He succeeds in bringing her ashore, and tho next day, having buried her father, they take the treasure to the padre of the nearby mission. And as he lias saved her life, she gives it and her love to the brave man who has made her an orphan in the performance of his duty. “The Crooked Path,” “Days of ’49,” a Kalem release, “The Young Millionaire,” are fine dramas, while “I Saw Him First” is an excellent comedy. Jack Newell, to escape his feminine admirers, attempts to isolate himself for the summer in a small camp at Lakeside. He finds, however, that he has made a grievous mistake, as he has located himself in an Adamless Eden. The rivalry among the young ladies is very keen .when young Newell makes his appearance. Their schemes are numerous and original and must be seen to be appreciated. MASTERTON COMPETITIONS. The third annual musical and elocutionary competitions ol the Masterton Competitions Society is to commence on Monday, July 21st. The syllabus is a comprehensive one, the vocal, instrumental, and elocutionary sections embracing eighty-three classes. Intending competitors will welcome the announcement that special excursion fares are being arranged for all participating in the competitions. The secretary is Mr William Gillespie, Academy Buildings, Masterton, to whom all communications should bq addressed. Entries close on June 19th.

THE FOLLIES. . •/ To fool wisely is to fool well, and although Folly is proverbially . depicted as a person of “cap , , and, bells” only, it must not he imagine for a moment that she is; ian utterly irresponsible and frivolous jade. It iB not everybody who can he foolish with discrimination, and the art is just OS difficult /a one as that of the one of looking wise. The Follies’ ftth ly justified this philosophy last night when they played to a good house in the Town Hall. Return visits are ■supposed 1 to’ 1 hfe actor’s ruin, but this mummer’s superstition was amply disproved in this instance. The entertainment! provided was crisp, bright, and versatile? and while it possessed, in a measure, a quality of sameness in its two parts, it was a sameness that failed to grow monotonous. The company is not so strong numerically as when it last visited Stratford, but it has lost none of the breezy dafeli that characterised its performance on its previous appearance here, and its aptly-chosen title scored one more justification. The members sang, danced, and laughed themselves into a very speedy sympathy with an appreciative audience, and they ran the gamut of folly from the housemaid’s knee of a quartette to the zymosis of a coon song, if we may be permitted to mix the pharmacopoeia with the diatonic scale. Incidentally, the singing was excellent, the solo uoik and the concerted numbers being finished and delightfully tuneful. This applies particularly to the concerted items which were really exceptionally well-harmonised. Miss Cissy O’Keefe was a power of strength in her vocal portion of the programme.’ She has a contralto voice of quite exceptional quality and if only, like the proverbial Scotchman, she had been caught young by a good trainer, she would not have been a Folly. For this disability of Fate, the Follies and their audience have every reason for gratification. Miss Iris Edgar has a sweet and singularly true soprano voice, and her singing throughout was cultured and dainty. The Sisters Lussanne are two exceptionally clever and competent dancers, light and more than Ordinary versatile in their variety of steps for comedy souhrettes. Mr Cliff O’Keefe supplied a good baritone and the comedy work in the hands of Mr Hugh Ste.yne was new and whimsical to the Ist degree. Lastly, Mr Kennedy Black, at the piano, was supreme. He is an exponent of the instrument who is really wasted on the fripperies of entertainment. Tone and touch were both admirable, and the audience would dearly have liked to hear him in something a trifle more severe than the music he was called upon to play.