FIXTURES

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 164, 1 October 1927, Page 22 (Supplement)

FIXTURES

HIS MAJESTY’S THEATRE Now Playing: Allan Wilkie’s Shakespearean Company. October 29: “The Ghost Train” (Betty Ross Clarke). November 12 to 19: “Cradle Snatchers.” November 29 to December S: Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Co. December 21 to January 4: “Rose Marie.” TOWN HALL Now Playing: Alexander Watson Recitals. COMING ■ Tell Me More.” “Tip Toes” (Thurza Rogers). Franz Nolnar’s “Liliom” and “The Old Adam,” by Cicely Hamilton, were produced recently by the Melbourne Repertory Society. “The Music Master,” in which David Warfield won fame in the United States, will be Maurice Moscovitch’s next production in Sydney. Mr. Moscovitch says that for some years he tried to get the rights of this piece. I Betty Balfour, the motion picture I actress, has resigned her part in the new musical comedy “Up With the Lark” so far as the London production is concerned. Anita Elson will then take her place, and others in the company are Allen Kearns, Robert Michaelis, Austin Melford, Billie Hill and Diana Wilson. Although Pirie Bush is a New Zealander, born in Napier, he is apparently comparatively unknown in some parts of New Zealand. The following paragraph appeared in a Dominion paper: “Miss Pirie Bush, the New Zealander who was here with the Renee Kelly Company, is supporting the American stars, Margaret Lawrence and Louis Bennison, in “Our Wife” in Sydney.

The company which is to play “Castles in the Air” in Sydney will be drawn from the “Tip Toes” and “Klatja” organisations. When Rowena Ronald did so well as Madame Pompadour in Sydney during Beppie de Vries’s illness it was predicted that she would soon be in a leading role. Thurza Rogers will have good dancing opportunities in this piece, which will be staged in Sydney immediately after “Tip Toes” has concluded its run at the Royal.

Auckland theatregoers will renew acquaintance with the Allan Wilkie Shakespearean Company this evening, when the company begins its season with the spectacular “royal pageant” play, “tfenry VIII.” Mr. Wilkie is a native of Liverpool. At an early age, when most lads are dedicating their future, Mr. Wilkie was thinking of the stage. He was just 16 when he saw his first play, Sidney Grundys by no means startling “Bunch of Violets,” although, in truth, the play impressed him considerably. Full surrender to the fascination of the stage came, however, with his subsequent view of Osmond Tearle in the role of Othello. After that experience young Wilkie’s mind was made up, and, bravely approaching his father for his consent to his adopting a stage career, he surprised the old gentleman into a reluctant consent. With that young Wilkie went to London, played walking gentleman for a few shillings a week, toured the provinces for a few shillings more, and after six years, dissatisfied, but still ambitious, started out on independent management, and thus started the enterprise that has become an Australian and New Zealand institution.”

Thousands of Diggers saw on the London stage the famous Arthur Bourchier, whose death: occurred recently in South Africa. Diggers remember him as Old Bill, in “The Better ’Ole,” which ran for 800 performances at the New Oxford Theatre. When I saw this play just after the Armistice, I admired particularly Bourchier’s “walrus” moustache, but I did not know until to-day that it was his very own, says an Australian writer. He disliked false whiskers, and grew a “mo” for the part. While this play was running his friends always referred to him as

“Sergeant-Major.” When he appeared as Henry the Eighth with Sir Herbert Tree, Bourchier grew his own beard. A film record of the production—one of the most spectacular of recent years —has been preserved.

(By COTHURNUS) Diana Wilson, here with Lawrence Grossmith. in “Captain Applejohn’s Adventure,” is playing in “Up With the Lark,” in London. Gilbert and Sullivan revivals in Sydney are being put on at Her Majesty’s, to be followed by “The Chocolate Soldier,” before the company leaves for New Zealand. “Lady Be Good” is going on its tuneful way at the St. James’s Theatre, Sydney, where it seems to be more popular than “No, No, Nanette.” * * * Margaret Lawrence regrets that she was not able to be the first to play “Tea for Three” in Sydney, a part in which she appeared in New York, but she has many other plays with lier which will be presented in due course, including “The Silver Cord,” “Her Cardboard Lover,” “Wedding Bells” and “Secrets.” Back in New York Leon Gordon, of “White Cargo” fame, is preparing to launch two other pieces on the American market. He has named them “Trade Winds” and “Tin Soldiers.” and they were both written during Gordon’s stay in New Zealand and Australia. Billie Lockwood, who plays the part of the maid in “Our Wife,” with Margaret Lawrence, at the Criterion, is enthusiastic over the play, and the kindnesses she receives at the hands of Miss Lawrence. “She is a lovely woman, as well as a great actress,” is how Miss Lockwood describes her.

New people in Allan Wilkie's Shakespearean company are Prank Clewlow and Dennis Barry. Mr. Clewlow was for many years at the famous Repertory Theatre at Manchester under Miss Horniman's management. He was stage director for Mr. Wilkie when the actor-manager toured India prior to coming to Australia. Mr. Clewlow relinquished the post of stage director of the Carl Rosa Opera Company to come to Australia and appear again in Shakespearean productions. He will be Henry VIII. to-night. Mr. Barry is also regarded by Mr. Wilkie as a decided acquisition. He will have very important parts in future productions. Romeo is one of them. During his early experience of the stage Mr. Barry was trained in classical dancing, and acquired a grace of movement in his acting. He is also a singer, and will be heard to-night. John Cairns and Arthur Keane, experienced Shakespearean actors, who joined Mr. Wilkie’s company only a little while before the fire at Geelong, and many who have been in it for years, will also appear to-night. Mr. Wilkie will have the role of Cardinal Wolsey, and Miss HunterWatts will be Queen Katharine.

“Abie’s Irish Rose” is to be revived at the Palace Theatre, Melbourne, at the conclusion of “The Sheik” season. Can such things be?

That famous comedienne of old Gaiety days. Connie Ediss, is returning to the London stage in “The OneEyecl Herring,” the “crossword puzzle” drama with which Leon Lion starts his tenancy of Wyndham’s Theatre. Miss Ediss has been in retirement on a farm in Massachusetts, looking after chickens and ducks and busying herself with the production of maple syrup, honey and the like. Other additions to the cast of this play are Henry Hewitt, Clive Currie and Madge Snell (Countess Vivian Hollander).

Another new London management is Burndy Productions, Ltd., which includes Sam Berney and A. E. Bundy, both well-known figures in the film world, and D. A. Abrahams, son of A. E. Abrahams, who owns a number of London theatres. They will present at the Strand Theatre “Seventh Heaven,” a play by Austin Strong, which had a New York run of nearly three years. Helen Menken, a wellknown New York actress, will make a first appearance in England in the part which she originally “created”; Godfrey Tearle will have the chief male part, and others in the cast are Dorothy Holmes-Gore, Fred Groves, Ivan Berlyn and Rothbury Evans. “Seventh Heaven” has already been played in New Zealand.^

“Henry VIII.,” Allan Wilkie’s opening production this evening, is seldom staged because of the lavish expenditure necessary for the brilliant court scenes of the Tudor period. Mr. Wilkie has spent much time in collecting the many splendid scenes.

Some “rough-stuff” will be seen in “Among the Wolves,” which succeeds “The Constant Nymph” at the New Theatre, London, after a try-out at Portsmouth Greenland is the scene of the play, which is an adaptation by John Protheroe of Georges Toudouze’s “Parmi Les Loups,” produced last October at the Oaeon in Paris. In the Greenland settlement depicted is a band of cut-throats, among whom suddenly is thrown, through a shipwreck, a young and rich girl. Hence arises dissension; they fight over her, then draw lots for her, but cannot agree, and finally they want to get rid of her as she has so entirely upset their ruffianly Eden. Olga Lindo will be this girl, while Betty Bolton has the part of an Eskimo girl, who has little to say but figures importantly in the plot. Sam Livesey, Malcolm Keen, Lawrence Anderson, and George de Warfaz are other members of the company. Raymond Massey is the producer.

A book containing the experiences and impressions of Fred Bluett, the veteran comedian of the “Sunny” Company at the Princess, would be interesting. He intends to write one. The comedian began with the Fuller organistion in 1897, and was more than 12 vears with the late Harry Rickard. Going to South Africa for a four weeks’ contract, he remained nine months there. Then he went to England, and did a lot of revue work during five years in that country. “Sunny” is the comedian’s first musical comedy in Australia.