“AUGUST, 1914”

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 905, 24 February 1930, Page 15

“AUGUST, 1914”

MR. LOTINGA’S INTRODUCTION FARCE AND VAUDEVILLE “August, 1914,” a farce' in nine scenes. Presented at His Majesty’s Theatre by J. C. Williamson. CAST Sir Arnold Barrington .. Arthur Ellis. Jenkins Lawrence J. Lawrence. Ginger Jack Frost. Parker . . . Fred Luck. Jimmie Josser Ernest Lotinga. Hans Selich Harold Wilkinson. ! Carl Becker Max Avieson. j Paul Langdon Arnold Bell. Reporter Doyle Crossley. Joan Barrington .. .. Kathleen Barbor. Maisie Daisy Bindley. Sally .. Ida May. Medical Officer Jack Deering. Madame Fouchard .. .. .. Rie Costa. If the gales of enthusiasm which swept through His Majesty’s Theatre on Saturday evening are any criterion, Auckland audiences like their humour laid on with a trowel, r ’ ’' ", Mr. Lotinga must have been mightily pleased with his first appearance in New Zealand. A full house greeted him, and applauded ’his first production as a masterpiece of amusement. He had only to remove his trousers and scamper about in a shirt to send the majority of the audience into convulsive laughter. Disguised as a Dutch girl, he set them rocking again. References to verj' lively cheese and other mossy jests were welcomed apparently as the hallmark of originality, j “Aug List, 1914.” is billed as a superdramatic comedy. It is almost like stealing the thunder of the ‘TOO per cent. all-talking, all-dancing, allsinging” pictures. One felt that if only Bernard Shaw and Frederick Lonsdale, and Sir James Barrie, could write to suit the taste of the really appreciative public, all would be well with the | legitimate theatre today. Mr. Lotinga’s farce certainly belongs j to the 1914 period. It goes back even ; further than that. Still, if the ptib- ' lie likes it, let us by all means have 1 a few more “super-dramatic comedies.” It was good to hear such laughter again in a theatre which has been the home recently of a few halfsuppressed chuckles. The story is one of those wildly improbable, strangely disjointed affairs for which the war—very rightly—is to blame. It was no doubt even more popular when the British public was riding high on a particularly high patriotic wave. Mr. Lotinga assumes a character known as Jimmie Josser. It is the wedding day of his employer’s beautiful daughter. She does not know that her husband is a German spy in dis- j guise, but Josser scents it. War is ; declared simultaneously with the wed- j ding, and then, through the remaining eight scenes, events happen fast and furiously. The whole company arrives on the barrack square, in the trenches in France, ip. a ward at a base hospital, a farm in Flanders, in a haunted chateau, and on the Dutch frontier. How they do it logically can be explained only in farce and by Mr. Lotinga. Sufficient to say that the German spy is exposed, British virtue is rewarded, and everyone lives happily every after. It should be explained that Joan Barrington’s real lover returned on her wedding day along with the declaration of war, and that he marries her in the true tradition of melodrama. The whole farce moves round Mr. Lotinga, and he sets the pace through the nine scenes. Miss Barbor was a hiroine of the old tradition. Mr. Bell wfes an excellent hero, and seemed to be equipped for better jwork than

farce. Mr. Wilkinson spoke with curled lip, as every villain should. Mr. Frost and Mr. Luck worked strenuously as foils for Mr. Lotinga. The remainder of the company disguised themselves variously in the supporting roles. As a prelude to “August, 1914,” there were two splendid vaudeville turns. The Haragrove Brothers are two of the best simultaneous dancers Auckland has ever seen, and excel in comedy. Karyl Norman, the “Creole Fashion Plate,” is one of those surprising persons who can disguise himself so successfully that even women are deceived. A very good turn this, and admirably sustained. production. House Full.’*