ALEXANDER WATSON

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 152, 17 September 1927, Page 11

ALEXANDER WATSON

COMING TO AUCKLAND A welcome return awaits this great English entertainer, in New Zealand, after a triumphant Australian tour. For weeks past crowded houses have listened with delight to his selections irora J. M. Barrie, Dickens, John Maseheld. Kipling, Shakespeare. Mark Twain, A. A. Milne and Roderic Quinn to mention only a few of the writers whose works he has helped to make iuniliar. Mr. E. J. Gravestock, under whose direction Mr. Alexander Watson is touring the Dominion, has every reason to be pleased with the success of so sreat an artist. At the opening recital in Melbourne over 300 people were turned away, and a similar state <»f affairs has continued nightly, so great has been the desire of the public to be led by him through the gems of English literature. The remarkable Power which Mr. Watson has, in such supreme degree, of vividly reproduces in the minds of his hearers, without adventitious aids whatsoever, the scenes and characters in a story, drama, poem, or humorous episode, Sives his work unrivalled distinction. Mr. Watson’s first programme at the Auckland Town Hall concert chamber will include selections from Sir J. M. Barrie’s famous story “The Little Minister” with all its dry humour, its grange but masterful characteristics, ; nd its powerful dramatic force; also the works by John Masefield. A. A. -Ulne and Kipling. A very characteristic comment of this delightfully enter-t-lining man was given by the MelCourne “Age.” which said: “Mr. Watis said to be England’s foremost e locutior.ist, but the ability he showed on Saturday to drop into a real Scotch croguo was such that no Scotsman Du ever believe that he is an EnglishIr. any case his name belies it. •a-na yet there was no accent, from the so-called Oxford drawl, and its total horrible mispronunciation of the Eng J n,uage, to the cockney tv\urg, vvhii Air. Watson was not able to express \ u h perfect accuracy and apparent facility. Mr. Watson recited taoso lovable incidents in The Little jtinister’ concerning the gipsy, the ‘tot and the minister’s terrible dilemma. These who have read ‘The E*iti3 Minister' will do so again after “ e ar:.ng Mr. Watson. He kept the ?° Use tense with interest; he made it a ugh uproariously, but at no time did ® lose complete mastery of his audience

Ai.J then with that extraordinary of which he is master, M*r. atso« interpreted Kipling’s The Sea 2?* the Hills,* Mulholland’s ‘Contract/ Quinn’s stirring poem ’God’s gnawer,’ and ‘A Ballad of Cape St. fni 5S nt ** finis hing with Milne’s delightU L*Een We Were Very Young.’” roe plans will open at Lewis R. a *id Son, Ltd., on Tuesday, September 27.

A,) in Rex Ingram’s “Garden of £ ton company nearly caused a riot *ap Jgeria when they sought to level fm* Gerta * n &' roun( i to make a solid base an f* camt ‘na tower, the ground in nation having contained many old £2. if' Alice Terry has the leading aa nine role, and Ivan Petrovich plays her.