STAGELAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 246, 7 January 1928, Page 20

STAGELAND

FIXTURES HIS MAJESTY’S THEATRE Now Playing-: “Rose Marie” (Harriet Bennet and Frederic Bentley). February 1: “The Ringer,” Maurice Moscovitch. COMING “Archie” (Elsie Prince;. “The Chocolate Soldier.” “Tell Me More.” “Tip Toes.” “Castles in the Air.” Emma Temple, whose sterling- character studies have been enjoyed I'or many years by theatregoers, is leaving on a trip to England, where her sister, Miss Bessie Major, resides. Maud Allen, who toured New Zealand years ago as a classical dancer, is in London, according to latest advices, seeking a suitable playlet in which to bring her voice at last into action, presumably in a vaudeville theatre. W. S. Percy, who has been absent from this side for a very long time, has been appearing in English vaudeville in a sketch, “Alf’s Button,” in which is humour as Alt' has greatly diverted several critics. Percy is enormously popular in pantomime in Britain, and he never has to look round for an engagement when the British pantomime season approaches. While Muriel Starr, the actress, was playing the leading role in the crime drama, “Cornered,” at the Palace Theatre, Sydney, recently, her flat in Springfield Avenue, Potts Point, was being ransacked. On her return at 11 o’clock, she found the door open and the key still in the lock. The thief had merely turned the key and walked in. Watches, clocks, rings, brooches, a pearl string and clasp, and money to the total value of £IOO were stolen.

Sitwell Play is Good Fun First Class Satire BRILLIANT LONDON PREMIERE The famous Sitwell trio—Edith, 03bert and Sacheverell—made their stage debut recently at the Arts Theatre Club, London, in a play, “First Class Passengers Only,” written by Osbert in collaboration with Sacheverell. The scenes take place aboard the S.S. Inania. Really it is an extravagant charade. It has no rhyme or reason as a play. It is enormously good fun, and some of the dialogue is brilliant. Every subject is satirised. Modern religion, the Army, beauty culture, Freud, relativity and every conceivable fashionable foible come into it. The play is about a young Englishman (played by Esme Percy) who goes to America to become reconciled to his American wife. He assumes the disguise of a Russian Grand Duchess and also a Yogi professor. SITWELL CABARET One of the best known London hostesses is satirised throughout. Of course, the audience recognised who this was, but the lady herself was not present. The part was played by Sybil Arundel. In the middle of the play the whole Sitwell family entered on the stage as guests at a cabaret party. Edith Sitwell was wearing a marvellous costume of old gold brocade. They received a big ovation.

The dinner scene lasted over half an hour, and caused incessant laughter. It was continued comedy of the highest order, with a good literary finish. In the course of the dinner Sitwell poems were chanted to music as part of the cabaret scene. All the egoists and bores who had been satirised in the play were confronted on the ship by a reporter and a Press photographer. The Press comera was rigged up, and the camera was then turned on the audience and a flashlight taken. “All the world to-day is at sexes and sevens” was one of the lines in the play. The general impression was that the satire was extremely good, never mean or low. In fact, it was, one might say, sympathetic satire. Among those persent were Lord Carisbrooke, the Hon. Mrs. Ronald Greville, Mrs. Belloc Lowndes, Arnold Bennett, Lytton Strachey, Lydia Lopokova, the Marchioness of Headfort, and Lady Kathleen Curzon-Herrick.

(By COTHURNUS) Betty Ross Clarke is playing “The Witness for the Defence” in Perth. Warde Morgan is in the cast. Florence Smithson is starring in her own production of “The Gipsy Princess’ in England. * * * Stephanie Deste, now playing in “Rose Marie,” is already thinking out dances for “The Desert Song,” another spectacular show which will be done at the end of the “Rose Marie” tour. * * * Daphne Pollard, an Australian actress who has spent several years in England and America, was saved from drowning at Pasadena (Cal.) last month. She was unconscious for 15 minutes after being rescued by two girl companions. * * * A writer in “John o’ London’s Weekly” suggests the following as the best plays written since the war, with the reservation that no author is represented by more than one of his works: —“St. Joan,” G. B. Shaw; “Juno and the Paycock,” Sean O’Casey; “Abraham Lincoln,” John Drinkwater; “The Conquering Hero,” Allan Monkhouse; “The Constant Nymph,” Margaret Kennedy. Oscar Asche, the Australian actor, has been appointed a director of the Oscar Asche Greyhound Association, in London, which has been formed, with a capital of £40,000, to take over Mr. Asche’s farm at Nailsworth. Mr. Asche has been breeding greyhounds on this farm since his return from his last visit to Australia. Mr. Asche has al-

ways been closely associated with open and plumpton coursing. When in Australia he was a frequent visitor to Rooty Hill and Liverpool. Almost invariably he had a nomination in the English Waterloo Cup, and took a dog, which he called Once Australia, from this country to compete in the big event. It shaped well, without reaching the final stages.

The programme that will be represented when Wirth’s Circus opens in Auckland will be unique, in that it includes a number of new acts. These include Chester Dieck, a trick cyclist, the Redam Troupe, a modern Hercules, and three girl partners in feats of strength.; Hilary Long, a head balancer; and an animal act, Pallenberg’s bears. Then there are Miss Eileen May, Miss Doris and Miss Gladys, with their trained elephants and horses; and a dozen other turns, all of the Wirth standard, together with an army of clowns and funmakers.

Annie Croft, the latest London star to visit Australia, has had a meteoric career. She has the grit of the Northerner. From the chorus of “The Cinema Girl” she went into “The Follies of 1919 and 1920” with her husband, Reginald Sharland. Theirs was a war wedding in 1919. While he went to the war, she carried on her stage work. She first went on tour in “The Pearl Girl” and then came into London again in “My Lady Frayle,” “Topsy Turvy,” at the Empire, and next she took the lead in “The Peep Show.” “Brighton London,” "Poppy” (a seven months’ run, in which Reginald Shardand rejoined her), Cochran’s “Revue of 1926,” “Kid Boots,” and, finally, “My Son John,” with Billy Merson. On tour she has also played musical repertory. She is now playing in “The Girl Friend” in Sydney.

GRAND GUIGNOL PRODUCTION IN SYDNEY AN EVENING OF HORRORS “I have supped full with horrors." said Macbeth. It sounds almost as if he had had an evening of Grand Guignol plays. Unluckily only three out of the five plays given in the series which opened for a season at St. James’s Hall, Sydney, were tragedies, and the others were comedies of which - the first was exceedingly amusing, says the Sydney “Sun.” It began with “Honour Thy Father,” which was rather like “Mrs. Warren’s Profession” turned upside down. lan Maxwell was excellent as the father, and the others in the cast were Hilda Dorrington, Edythe Cowley, Milly Ryan, Cecil Scott and Mabel Gawler. The latter was certainly the strangest Belgian landlady ever seen. Then came “The Mask,” a real horror served up by Gaston Mervale, lon Maxwell and Hilda Dorrington. The shrieks of the last-named off stage, when the masked horror, his face ruined by an explosion, of whom she thought that she was rid for ever, came to her, were most realistic. “Three’s a Crowd” was excellent fooling, well done by Gaston Mervale, lon Maxwell and Floie Allen. “The Second Ash-Tray” introduced the old motive of the snake that was not there, and again Hilda Dorrington had a dance, with maniacal laughter this time. The others were Gaston Mervale as the snake-fancying husband, Cecil Scott, and Roy Herberte, got up excellently as an Indian servant. “Cupboard Love,” an inoffensive bedroom farce, interpreted by Floie Allen, who acted very neatly, Isobel Gawler and Cecil Scott, closed the bill.

The morals squad got busy in San Francisco recently and arrested several of the people who were concerned with an outspoken play, "The Married Virgin.” Patsy Hill and Vernon Sellars, who have been nearly six years with the Fullers, returned to Brisbane recently, after being with the Phil Smith revue company. They are now in Adelaide with George Storey's organisation at the Majestic Theatre. Both have been in New Zealand on several occasions. When the last mail left London, Marie Tempest was about to leave for an enforced holiday in Italy, her health having been unsatisfactory for some weeks. On her return, the actress will be featured in Alban i>. Limpus’s production of “The Masque of Venice.”

The death recently of Christie Sim- 1 onsens, who died at his home on the North Shore Line, Sydney, is most keenly felt by thousands of admirers, who remember this popular theatrical manager when he was a right-hand man to Bland Holt—a Position tr faithfully and honourably kept tor many years. . . * Cecil Haines, the Wellington girl, was in Ireland when the last mail left. She was appearing m The Terror with Denis Neilson, Terry s company, playing the part Mary MacGregor will have in New Zealand. The “Weekly Dispatch,” London, says that the Shakespeare Memorial Committee has accepted the Earl De La Warr’s gift of a Grosvenor Gardens site for the National Theatre. The scheme to inaugurate a national theatre was started by the Shakespeare Memorial Committee, which has received £200,000 in guarantees already. Another £IOO,OOO is still needed. Last month efforts were made to acquire Dorcester House, Park Lane, formerly the home of American ambassadors m Britain. Earl De La Warr is only 27. He served in the Navy during the war and was formerly a Lord-in- Waiting to the King.

OWEN NARES—MATINEE IDOL VISIT TO AUSTRALIA TOUR BEING ARRANGED Owen Nares, the distinguished English actor, has been engaged by J. C. Williamson, Ltd., to tour Australia next year. Mr. Nares will appear with a specially selected English company- . The repertoire is now being arranged. . . Mr. Nares, who is a matinee idol, is now playing in “The Fanatics’* in London, where the play is a sensational success. Sir George Tallis could have obtained this piece for Australia, but though he considered it very clever, le was sure that theatre-goers in this country would not approve of its theme. . Mr. Nares’s wife is Marie Polini, sister of the late Emilie Polini, who was for several years in this country. One of Mr. Nares’s chief successes was won in “If Winter Comes,” which had a long run in London. This actor, who was born in 1888, made his first appearance on the stage at the Haymarket Theatre, London, in 1908, when he walked on in the production of “Her Father.” Immediately afterwards he was in leading parts. He appeared in “Old Heidelberg” in 1909 and toured in the role of Karl during the next year. Plays of Ibsen and Oscar Wilde were soon included in his repertoire. In 1912 he was Lord Monkhurst in “Milestones” in London. Just before the war Mr. Nares played Frank Selwyn in the “all star” revival of “The Silver King” at His Majesty’s, London, in aid of King George’s Actors’ Pension Fund. At the same theatre in 1914 he played Henry Prince of Wales in the first part of Shakespeare’s “Henry IV.”, and in the same year had

the title role of “David Copperfield. Interesting appearances in the next few years included his Sir Toby in the “all star” revival of “The School for Scandal ” Cromwell in “Henry VIII” and Peter in “Peter Ibbetson.” Career as Manager In conjunction with Sir Alfred Butt, Mr. Nares entered on the management of the Queen’s Theatre, London, opening in March, 1919, as the Count Paul de Virieu in “The House of Peril.” In the -ixt year he retired from management and at the Playhouse was Reginald Carter in “Wedding Bells.” After having taken a variety of roles, he entered into partnership with Bertie Meyer and in 1922 toured the provinces as Mark Sabre in “If Winter Comes.” They began the management of the St. James’s early in the following year, when Mr. Xares continued in this part with great success. In 1923 Mr. Nares was the Rev. Gavin Dishart in “The Little Minister.” At the Adelphi in the following year hq played again his role of Julian Beauclerc in “Diplomacy” and subsequently went cn tour with his own company in this play.