"The Sign of the Cross" at Auckland.

Te Aroha News, Volume XIV, Issue 2079, 19 February 1898, Page 3

"The Sign of the Cross " at Auckland.

Visitors from these parts to Auckland during the coming week will be able to witness one of the greatest treats ever offered to colonial audiences. Messrs Williamson and Musgrovo, the celebrated amusement caterers, have been associated with many spirited ventures during the last fifteen years, and the coming production at the Opera House, Auckland, commencing cn Monday, .February 21, and the following evenings, of ‘ The Sign of the Cross,’ will add another, and we may say the greatest, to the list- * The Sign of the Cross * is admittedly the most remarkable play of the century. It has created a world-wide sensation. . It held the whole civilised world by its force, its daring, and its earnestness. It was played for fourteen, months in London, and it pursued its triumphant way through the provinces, uniting, for the first time' in dramatic history, Catholics, Protestants, Non-com* formists, and churchmen of every denomination. Everywhere it has attracted enormoua audiences, composed in a great degree of ministers of reJigion'Tnnr churchgoers who had never hitherto been inside a theatre. Its influences were so pronounced that all over England, and reoontly in Australia, where its production oreated a, profound sensaiion, it was made a subject of reference and discussion from nearly every pulpit. People flocked in thousands from all parts, of the country per special escursions by train and boat, no distance being too far, to be present at the performances. . When the play was staged at Adelaida over 600 excursionists came from Broken Hill specially to see it, being a 24 hours’journey. The population of Melbourne in one day increased' by over 2,000 by *lThe Sign of the Cross ’ excursionists coming from the country districts. Critics all the world over Have been unanimous in their enthusiastic praise of the Play. The Bishop of Norwich was so impressedjjjwith the ennobling and elevating character of the Play that he dispensed his congregation from their Lenten observances so far as would enable them to witness its representation while Canon Farrar concluded an eloquent appeal to • all those desirous of. seeing the stage used as a vehicle for the promulgation of truly moral and Christian sentiments, to avail themselves of the opportunity ot witnessing ‘ The Sign of the Cross,’ which, judged from a religious aspect, has never |before been seen in the memory of living man.’ The ‘ Christian World ’ admitted that l it was felt and confessed that by a work of art and from the stage the true universality of Christian worship was expressed with unimagined power/ The whole Play abounds with pure and lofty sentiments,, and is, moreover,to be highly recommended from an educational point of view. Says the ‘ Australasian Scnoolmaste’ i ‘Teachers could give no better intellectual treat and moral tonic to the pupils in senior c’asses than by taking them to see the ccntraat between the religious freedom’ we are privileged to enjoy now, and the persecution Christiane endured under the inhuman mosnster, Nero, B pagan Rome.’ Messrs Williamson and Musgrove have spent upwards of ,£2,000 in staging Wilson Barrett’s great play.. Magnificent stage pictures, gorgeous and costly costumes, expressly manufactured iff Lendon for the production, arid an excellent company of artists will combine in giving a realistic picture of the early Christian days. * The Sign of The Cross ’ will undoubtedly prove the most profoundly interesting Play ever staged in New Zealand. Again we advise everyone who can to go aud see it—it is the enly chance of seeing it.