"PETER PAN"

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 362, 13 April 1910, Page 8

"PETER PAN"

AT NEW PLYMOUTH. The audience was in a bad humor when the curtain rose at tne Theatre Royal last night, and the feeling of dis-j pleasure settled now and again upon the house during the very long intervals: i.ecessitated by the heavy scene-shifting, j It was not the ''fault of "Peter Pan" '> himself, or of his little colleagues on' the stage. | The play had been advertised to start! at 7.45 p.m., but it was three-quarterg of an hour later when the very thin or- j chestra of three instrumentalists tiled' into the well—and waited with glie I crowd. Five minutes later they struck up, and about live minutes after that] the curtain rose on "Peter Pan." Thei crowded house took the enforced waiti very quietly No announcement or ex-| cuse was made by the management, but 1 gradually it became known that owing to tlie v scenery having arrived here from Wanganui only during the afternoon, and the subsequent heavy rain, it had been found impossible to transport it to the theatre and have it -erected by the advertised time. This, of course, was probably beyond the power of the management. Then again the New Ply. mouth theatregoers have never treated Mr J. C. Williamson's companies so badly as to justify his cutting the orchestra down to three players. "Peter Pan" is certainly a peculiar piece. One needs to approach it with a childish mind, brimful of fairy stories and a profound belief in them. It is not easy, of course, for us to shake off tha whole of our disbelief in fairies' at a moment's notice, and to assume that childlike nature. .Hence, despite the very clever acting, the remarkable scenic effects, and the brightness of some por-| tions of it, there was) a want of hearty enjoyment amongst a large section of the audience. But it is a pretty fairy story, acted by a company of clever youn'g people, who certainly acquitted themselves remarkably well. The nursery scene was particularly "fetching.", Mis Lizetto Parkes assumed the title role of the "Peter Pan," the boy who didn't want to grow .up, but to be always little and have fun, and she was every moment n succes's. "Wendy", came next in point of importance, the part being entrusted to Miss Dolores Rovira. In each of these characters, the little artists were called upon to exhibit - a kind and sympathetic spirit, Peter's: being spoiled now and again by his pre-l dominating selfishness. Their manage-1 ment of a s'elf-imposed family of or-' phans in the "Never Never Land" was' extremely good, the same scene introducing a superbly stolid party of Red Indians. Mr. Th'os. Kingston has been seen in more congenial and convincing parts than those of Mr. Darling and Captain Ilook, but, of course, in the latter character he was pourtraying the pirate captain of our childhood—a bloodthirsty ruffian. Miss Valentine Sydney capably handled the part of Mrs'. Darling. "Nana," the dog, installed as the nurse in the Darling family, was an intensely amusing study. ' I Of a very effective set of scenes, by I •far the prettiest was the final picture of all—"Peter Pan" in his house on the' tree tops, with the fairy stare' twfnk-i ling all around. It was an exquisite piece of mounting, and was greeted with, tumultuous applause. The (light of tliej three little "Darlings" from their niirs-l cry at the invitation of "Peter Pan") was al'so good, and his guarding the house where his "Wendy" boy was sleeping was another. "Peter Pan," however, belongs to the lis't of plays which must be branded "not understood" by many of the averj age theatregoers.