DELIGHTFUL ENTERTAINMENT

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 88, 10 May 1909, Page 3

DELIGHTFUL ENTERTAINMENT

MASKELYNE AND DEVAXT'S MYSTERIES. The compelling attraction of the mystic was thoroughly evidenced ou Saturday night, when the Theatre Royal contamed, for a week-end night, an audience that could not have been anticipated for any other of the varieties of entertainment. The name and fame ot Maskelyue and Devant, familiar by personal recollection to scores of those who call the Old Country "home," and familiar by reputation and literature to nearly every colonial of the present generation, fully wauanted the enterprise of Mr. Henry Howard in deciding to give New Zealanders an opportunity of marvelling over their world-renowned mysteries. The charm of the feats of these wonder-working tricksters, if euch, for want of deeper knowledge of their methods, they .might be termed, is that Maskelyne's feats are as puzzling to-day as they were to our fathers 40 years ago. Saturday night's audience was completely bewildered by a series of feats impossible of explanation. Mr. Owen Clark, on whom the mantle of Jlaskelyne has fallen, as a master magician of a school far beyond any that has 'toured New Zealand for many years. By way of opening what should bo » highly successful season in New Plymouth, he first of the audience to a brilliantly clever exhibition of , sleight-of-hand work. His tricks were remarkably neat and crisp, and accompanied by a running " patter " that was quaint, diverting and amusing. But it ■-' was the " Tub ot Diogenes " that niysti-"""-fied and bewildered, To toe audience

was exhibited the empty bottomless tub. It was watched intently while the wizard and his assistant covered it carefully at both ends with s'.iects of white paper. They saw, when the sealing was finished, that the barrel was still empty, the electric bulb that was inserted showing tnrougii the " transparent paper at each end. And yet, even while they watched, the form of Diogenes was silhouetted from within, and a moment later the old cynic, tearing aside the paper, emerged from the tuu! He certainly got out of the tub, but how did he get in? Saturday night's audience is still wondering. Perhaps to-uigtit's or to-morrow's audience may be able to explain that which has mystified two generations. Even more wonderful, perhaps, because it was more entertaining, was the mystifying cabinet ■ and the locked trunk. A committee from the audience kept a vigilant eye on the performance throughout, but their -proximity only left them the more bewildered. From the perfectly plain wooden cabinet standing in the centre of the stage, and set up off the Hoor so that the front, sides, bottom and top were in full view of the audience, and the back under the inspection of the , committee, the performers mysteriously entered and disappeared, showing themselves on the stage and at the wings one moment, and the next uncxplainably appearing from the cabinet, which, so far as the audience could see, they had not even approached. At one stage the wicked monkey was caught and unceremoniously bundled into the plain deal trunk, which was then locked by ft member of the committee; the box was securely bound up in canvas and tied by the committee, and the whole deposited and locked in the empty cabinet. A moment later, and the original occupant of the cell iwho had mysteriously disappeared) emerged, and the box was found empty, the ropes, canvas and lock intact! To account for tiie transformations and mysterious movement* »f the performers the audience was quit<> prepared to attribute occult power U the witch. Another charming illusion was a romantic little playette, entitled, '•St. Valentine's Eve," Mr. ifarclay Cammon provides a cheerful interlude of quite another order. He is a comedy and a concert in himself, a singlehanded entertainer of a type more robust and exhilarating than Uie lamented Mel. B. Spmr. His humor is irresistible and inexhaustible, and completely devoid of vulgarity or weariness. Having witnessed him, it is easy to understand his immense popularity with the London public. The entertainment concluded with some clever and dexterous jugglery by M. Gintaro, a'talented Japanese exponent of the art. His feat* of balancing, as well as juggling, were equal, if not superior, to anything hitherto witnessed locally, not excluding tinqucvalli, whose turns, however, are of a different class, In a word, it can honestly be said that no more enjoyable entertainment has ever been staged in this town, and it is easy to endorse the unanimous verdict of approval with which the budget of mirth and mystery has been received throughout the Dominion. Tne artists have an almost inexhaustible re-) pertoire, warranting crowded houses fori the rest of the season.