AUCKLAND OPERETTA

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 484, 13 October 1928, Page 14

AUCKLAND OPERETTA

“THE ENCHANTED CAVE” EXCELLENT PRODUCTION With a commendable spirit of independence, the Normal School, Epsom, with the object of obtaining money torimprovements to the school ground and purchase of apparatus, last evening staged an operetta, “The Enchanted Cave, ’in Scots Hall. The large audience assembled had the double pleasure of assisting a good cause and witnessing a most agreeable amateur entertainment. The operetta was made more than ordinarily interesting through the fact that both libretto and music were composed by Aucklanders. Mrs. TV. Wilkinson, writer of the libretto, furnished her company with bright script full of first-rate dialogue and amusing situations. Mr. S. Green, of the school staff, composed the music, and the performance showed that he has sound musical scholarship, and ample technical resource. Some of the numbers had a clever lilt that will take more than one day to banish from memory. Having good material to work upon, the company, which consisted of 250 children, did excellent work the whole way through. The ballets were arranged with artistic skill and executed with vigour and grace. Fairies, elves, butterflies and grasshoppers, they all worked industriously, and their efforts brought pleasure. Among the principals, R. Dobie, a boy comedian, was astoundingly good. How one so young could be so subtle, and have such apprecitaion of comic effect, is difficult to explain. Nancy Ousley, the heroine, also gave a careful and pleasing performance. Mr. H. C. Burr, the only adult in the cast, has a sweet tenor voice, and his solo numbers were features of the show*. The chorus singing was also pleasant and effective. “The Enchanted Cave” will be presented again this evening. “THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR” SCENES IN “THE DIVINE LADY" Three ships, remodelled at a cost of £50,000, represented Lord Nelson’s battle-fleet in “The Divine Lady,’’ First National’s great special, whiefi deals with the life of England’s naval hero and Lady Hamilton. Corrinne Griffith, who enacts the role of Lady Hamilton, is given an opportunity second to none in her long acting career, and makes the most of it. The three ships were “The Vanguard,” “The Victory,” and “The Seraphine.” Some idea of the staunchness of these picturesque old vessels lies in their combined record of having aggregated about 300,000 miles

during their combined lives of about S 3 years. Their logs 6peak eloquently of gales weathered, mutinies encountered, and passengers carried during such hectic days as the Alaskan gold rush, the migration to the Solomon Islands, and the exodus to the Kimberley mines. The Battle of Trafalgar is enacted and reproduced in an amazingly realistic manner. GRASS SKIRTS AND HIBISCUS When Norman Dawn called upon Edith Roberts to do her sequence o i native dancing in “The Adorable Outcast,” there was no dancing mistress on the set to instruct her. as is th« general procedure at most studios. Edith simply gave her grass skirt a preliminary shiver, jangled her bracelets together and started right in to do an island dance exactly as it is done in Suva. There is no great difference between the island dances, the them* being somewhat similar, but there &h----many little differences that are kno to travellers and which give the pr°* duction an amateurish atmosphere not observed. Knowing this, h* l * Roberts brought her island costl * from Suva, and was taught the gen * ine Fijian dance by a recognised lsis belle

Tom Ricketts and Brandon H are the latest additions to the ra mount Company now at work production of “Interference, ' Broadway stage success of last son. Principals in the film are EJ • , Brent, Doris Kenyon, Clive Brook William Powell. Irvin Willett, who is megaphone on “Into the Depths,. which Jack Holt has the feature has the production well in haßfl» large number of featured players extras were taken to San Fedro. shooting the sea sequences of a the Depths,” which promises to most exciting melodrama of tn> For the first time in motion P*p*' r . entombed men in a disabled ine at the bottom of the sea will h® troduced.