ERNIE LOTINGA

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 901, 19 February 1930, Page 14

ERNIE LOTINGA

HIS MAJESTY’S ON SATURDAY Tomorrow morning: the box plans will be opened for the coming - season of Ernie Lotinga and his English supporting company, which will begin on Saturday afternoon next with the first representation here of the military comedy play “August, 1914,” which was written specially for Mr. Lotinga by Con West and Herbert C. Sargeant. Boisterous comedy has chief place in the entertainment, but the play also unfolds an intensely interesting story. " ‘August, 1914.’ is a play,” wrote a Sydney critic, “with a grim earnestness that makes it almost as humorous as the obvious comedy. There are German spies in it, and a wronged heroine, and all the paraphernalia of a sure-fire shocker, making it all strong meat for the average theatregoer. The bulesque section of the entertainment begins with theory and practice concerning the choice or acquirement of wedding presents. In the next scene Jimmie Josser (Ernie Lotinga) assumes a variety of disguises according to the type of recruit that is in demand. Then there are his comic mistakes in drill, with a wish to cling to an umbrella and to escape as often as possible for refreshment. After a trench scene there is a hospital episode and other scenes are the farm billet, the haunted chateau, the Dutch frontier and a deserted battlefield. In one of Josser’s appearances he is readily accepted by the Germans of the story as a Teutonic general, and was thus able to save the hero from sudden death. In all the scenes the genius of Mr. Lotinga for creating laughter is presented at its best and the whole forms one of the best and funniest entertainments ever seen in Sydney.” Miss Kathleen Harbor, Mr. Lotinga’s leading lady, is a well-known and popular English actress and she made herself immensely popular in Australia in a number of clever characterisations. Preceding “August, 1914,” on Saturday will be presented a couple of the world’s most notable vaudeville acts: Karl Norman, a remarkable female impersonator, known as the Creole Fashion Plate, and the Hardgrove Brothers, whose eccentric dancing in the guise of midshipmen has won them fame wherever they have appeared. Only a limited number of representations can be staged of “August, 1914,” and it ■will be followed by “Police Force,” “Khaki” and “House Full.” There are over twenty English artists concerned in the production of “August, 1914.”