ENTERTAINMENTS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXIV, Issue 9, 11 January 1902, Page 2

ENTERTAINMENTS.

"A MKSSAGfi FROM MARS. 1 Commenting on the opening night of tthis popular and interesting phy at the Theatre Royal, Ohristchurch, the I.ytr tellon Times remarks:—"Few plays have been presented to Ohri'stehurch tbeatre-goers heralded by a more unanimous verdict cf approval else- | where than ' A Message from Mars.' The play is a delightful one. Obviously suggested by Dickon's ' Christmas Carol,' it is worked out on infinitely more human and effective lice*. . . . Mr Richard Gauthony has made Horace Parker, round whom ths action of ' the message' centres, ». uian-egois* ratlin- thin an egoist-man. The secret of the play's charm lies here. It is intensely human. The play has many quaintly appealing characteristics that almost defy its analysis, lb runs upon recognised lines to the ultimate haven of virtue triumphant, but it travels thither by a new road. Horace Parker gives utterance to ' man talk,' and does not speak written platitudes, whilst those associated with him do the things th*y ought not to, and lewe undone the thing they ought to have done, in the same way as any other man or woman off the stage. The ' book,' moreover, is refreshingly brisk—crisp and witty, without striving aft°r the epigramatic, and never seeking to move laughter by cheap artifice. It is difficult to suggest in words the happy spirit of the play." "A Message from Mars " will be staged for two nights, Friday and Saturday next. The plan is at Mr McKinnon Bain's.