ENTERTAINMENTS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 292, 4 May 1911, Page 7

ENTERTAINMENTS

"VIA WIRELESS." ( The box plans for the one performance by Mr. J. 0. Williamson's New London , Company of "Via Wireless," the new ; spectacular and sensational drama by : Paul Armstrong and Winchell Smith, to be given on Monday next, were opened yesterday at Collier's. Writes the critic of the Sydney Referee about "Via Wireless.": We had nothing better in the way of high-class drama than "Via Wireless," nothing more realistic than the steel works with the furnaces in full blast, in the gun-casting episode in the second act, and the rescue of passengers by the s.s. Mongolian after wireless messages have been exchanged is also a remarkable achievement on the part of the producer. Then tnerc is in the third act the great novelty of a wireless machine in working order, and the great thrill in the play is that which agitates the audience while the operator on the Mongolian is answering the almost despairing calls of the doomed little craft. The wireless business leaving something to the imagination, as it does, is wonderfully effective. The graphic foundry scene, the intense wireless episode, the wreck of the yacht "Ivessa," the storm and the rescue in "Via Wireless" are, according to the Sydney Bulletin, the best things in their line that have been done south of the line. "Via Wireless" is described as a powerful play superbly mounted, with several astonishing spectacular effects, a thrilling chapter of modern life, well acted and realistically staged. It is sensational to a degree, but the sensationalism is accompanied by the poetic charm of the wireless episode and a romantic love story.