ERNIE LOTINGA

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 904, 22 February 1930, Page 14

ERNIE LOTINGA

HIS MAJESTY’S TONIGHT At eight o’clock to-night and following evenings, the inimitable London comedian, Ernie Lotinga, together with his complete English company of 20 well-known English artists, including the talented leading lady, Miss Kathleen Barbor, will stage for the first time here the English military comedy play “August, 1914.” This play was specially written for Mr. Lotinga by Con West and Herbert C. Sergeant, and is said to be one of the cleverest and most amusing comedies the English stage has yet produced. In London the name of Ernie Lotinga makes just as big appeal to playgoers as does the name of George Robey. Mr. Lotinga will introduce in “August, 1914,” his inimitable characterisation, Jimmie Josser, an absurd figure who, at the outbreak of war, flings himself into the recruiting depot in various disguises in an endeavour to appear as several men and collect' their first instalments of pay. He is next discovered with seven others—he the most awkward and most contentious of an awkward squad—who, under the commands of a bristling sergeant-major, gets involved with an umbrella and disappears periodically into the canteen. A subsequent and rather gaudy undressing act, wherein Lotinga and two others change out of their dingy mufti into the khaki of the King, invites e.onnoisseurs of comedy plays to unbutton their waistcoats and give mirth full play. In the trenches Ernie Lotinga is the comic phenomenon who thwarts German spies, gets himself up preposterously as a German field-marshal, poses hilariously as a Dutch maiden to help the heroine over the Dutch frontier, and generally behaves regardless of time, circumstances or geography in intensely humourous scenes. Each performance of “August, 1914” will be preceded by the presentation of a couple of world-famous head-line vaudeville acts, namely, Karyl Norman, the Creole fashion plate, whose female costumes, it is said, cost over £5,000 to make, and the Hardgrove Brothers, two wonderful dancers, who created a furore of enthusiasm in Sydney and Melbourne, where they have been appearing for the past six months. Mr. Lotinga and Miss Barbor will be supported in “August, 1914” by Harold Wilkinson, Arnold Bell, Fred Luck, Adolph Luck, Arthur Ellis. Jack Frost, Max Avieson, Lawrence, J. Lawrence, Ida May, Doyle Crossley. Jack Deering, Daisy Bindley and Rie Costa, all of whom appeared in the successful London production of the military play. Only a limited number of performances can be staged of “August, 1914,” and it will be followed by the comedy, “House Full.”