AMUSEMENTS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 127, 7 September 1910, Page 8

AMUSEMENTS.

VALDARES ENTERTAINERS. Probably there is not seen upon the vaudeville stage an act that is more popular with the average theatre goer than a good bicycle turn, when the participants can really ride, and the humour is such that it really appeals to them. Such an act is booked at the Theatre Royal on Friday and Saturday next, when the Valdares, four in number, two ladies and two gentlemen, will appear in conjunction with the above combination. Their act is of the sensatiqnal kind, and they can do al : most anything in the cycling line. It seems to make little difference whether they are riding the bicycle upside down, on the side or any other odd position, whether they have one wheel or two, or what style wheel they ride, whether a crat, buggy, or bicycle wheel. It is one of the most original acts in this line of the theatrical business, and there is little doubt but that it will be a Favourite here.

"THE BRASS BOTTLE." The laughable, farcial comedy entitled "The Brass Bottle," one of the most attractive productions in recent years, is to be played in New Plymouth on Monday next for one night only by • 'Mr. J. C. Williamson's new English Farcial Comedy Company, specially imI ported from London for the interpreta- ) tion of this play. The whimsical notion ■ upon which the story of "The Brass Bottle" is founded is very neatly and skilfully developed by Mr. F. Anstiy, I the well-known "Punch" humourist. In .' the book L'v the same author from which I the piccn is derived, the magical tricks I which are of so much account in the | conduct of the story are' not more i amusing when left to the imagination | than they are now that they are mat.>ri ialised on the stage. You eaa underI (stand the feelings of Horace Ventimore, a, young architect, when a jinnee, | Fakrash-El-Aamash, who has bsen two I thousand in* •:. bottle, suddenly appears and proceeds to play all kinds of p-a'iks with him; and the best of the joke is that everything is brought about with such an air of plausibility that the author persuades you that it is the sort of thing which might happen to any body. The play has recently hao. a run of ten months at the London Vaudeville Theatre, where it is still drawing packed houses. "The Brass Bottle"' has been described as the most I astonishing play produced for a century. I A farcical comedy of a particularly high order, it embraces much of the glamour of a first-class pantomime—with the embellishments of the best of comic opera. There are ballets, wonderful pantomime effects, and much gorgeous costuming in "The Brass Bottle," which altogether would appear to be a play distinctly away from the ordinary. The box plan I'will be opened at Collier's to-morrow j morning.

! PIANO PLAYING RECORD. Mr. John Stirton, ex-world's champion, continued all through Monday night, ■right through yesterday, and is still fingering the keyboard of that Haake piano in a grim determination to wrest from the holder the world's championship for endurance piano-playing. To do this he has to exceed liis previous best by about nine hours, for his record has been twice eclipsed quite recently. For sixty-nine and a half hours he has to keep both hands busy on the keyboard without a single stoppage. He will be glad, he says, when breakfasttime comes along to-day, for by that 'time he will have passed the half-way mark. The latter half of the performance, he says, is by far the easiest—a j the top. All day long people were ' sort of downhill run after climbing to calling in to see him at work, and the visitors' book showed a constant stream of visitors, who evinced much interest in the various postures assumed by the performer in order to obtain rest and comfort; and the manner of taking re-, freshment. It was plain that Mr. Stir-' ton welcomed the cheerful visitor, and any happening that tended to break the, dull monotonv of the endurance test,' which will continue right On till to-mor- j row night about 8 o'clock if the record' is to be broken. Mr. Stirton played the incidental music for the Biograph Pictures last night, and the tunes selected were most appropriate, and sympathetically given.