AMUSEMENTS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 220, 28 December 1910, Page 8

AMUSEMENTS.

"MR. PREEDY AND THE COUNTESS." A splendid holiday crowd greeted Mr. George Willoughby's Farcical Comedy Company at the Theatre Royal on Monday night, and laughed itself hoarse. "Mr Preedy and the Countess" is a new* and smart use for the ancient- farcical device of cross-purposes. The countess of the farce, her prevailing husband and her mail relatives generally rejoice in more or less cerulean •'pasts," and for the necessities of the story Mr. Preedy; a wealthy business man of timid tendencies, is woven in as a smart' foil to the general blueness of the aristocrats. Preedy has an antithetic business partner of violent proclivities, who uses, the inoffensive little man to cover a personal delinquency or so. He, therefore, desiring to bolt with the countess, and to cover his tracks from the disreputable male aristocrats, who add polish to the proceedings, insist that Preedy shall give the countess sanctuary in his'flat. Everything therefore happens in Preedy's dining-room, except those things that happen in Preedy's dormitory, which, in the innocence- of his heart, he hands over to the great lady, while his violent partner attends to business and a dying relative marrying an-1 other woman in" terms of a will whereby he becomes still more gilded. The guileless Preedy, 'having handed over his flat, is the innocent victim of the rage of three male aristocrats, who invade th'e J flat, butt into furniture, threaten j Preedy's life, and accuse him of conduct' unbefitting anyone but a peer. Preedy, of -course, is able to prove to everybody, including the parents of the girl he is-' really going to marry, that Innocence is his other name, and the final tableau shows the exonerated little man being, carefully patronised by subdued aristocrats. The faice is smart, humorous, and exhilarating. Miss Beatrice Day has not in her New Zealand appearances excelled the work she did as the Countess. Her delicate management of the man "situations" were wholly artistic. She conveyed the point that a society "queen can be aristocratically "rapid" without loss of dignity. Mr. Fred B. Sharp managed Preedy with sparkling effect. His comedy is good, and he disdains the use of the exaggerated horseplay that usually does farce duty. Mr. George Willoughby, as the. bouncing partner, is given a part in which there is excessive and unnecessary garrulftv. Mr. Carton, the farcemonger, might subedit "Bounsall." Mr. Willoughby's breeze is still thank goodness.. Nobody without breeze could carry Bounsall. Mr. Harry Halley's picture of a lugubrious man-servant wajs'good character work, and, as the Earl of Rushmere, Mr. Hugh Buckler put in of the most skilled work to be found in the cast. Mr. Harold Parkes gave a nice picture of an aristocrat of the offensive kind, and the lesser parts were in skilled hands. Constructively, the playlet "Slippery Jim," which was ; used as a curtain raiser, is very fine, and its best use <sn. Monday night was to show Mr. Buckler "as a very convincing cockney burglar." Mr. Buckler's playing of the part gives him a claim to be considered a first-class character actor. Miss Day in the little scene with the housebreaker showed power and artistry. ." THE NIGHT OF THE PARTY." Last night at the Theatre Royal was staged "The Night of the Party," a farce which explained in a series of. loud laughs what a very good time a number of servants may have. It further casts a comic light on the relations-between masters and men, "missuses" and maids, and throws light, on the subject of impersonation by a manservant of his employer. The wild hilarity of "The Party" is its Tiest excuse and the intricacies "of the "situations" and absurdities of the •dialogue and If business" made'it a gladly accepted holiday item. As an adventuress Miss Beatrice Day scintillated and managed to carry the impression that she was rapid and polished enough to be a very great lady. Mr. Geo. Willoughby, as an exalted but retired menial, with a haughty word of advice for all menials, did fine work. The finest showing, however, was given, by Mr. Hugh Buckler, as the pestered master of a series of excruciating servants, and by Mr. Sharp, as the valet who masqueraded as his master and committed comic insolences of the highest order. Mr. Harry Hallev shone out as a bibulous and liveried porter. Mr. Halley is certainly one of the most valuable men of a particularly skilled company. A good deal of fun was made by Miss Amy Willard as a sometimes liberated maidservant in a hobble skirt. Miss Willard cheered everybody up a good deal. The cast was a big one and adequately filled, its only business being to provide great laughter. Weldon Grossmith is funnier in "The Night of the Party" than usual, and the Willoughby Company understand what that famous entertainer meant when he wrote it.