ENTERTAINMENTS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 129, 22 November 1911, Page 4

ENTERTAINMENTS

"A FOOL THERE WAS." Last night Porter Emerson Brown's v ampire" play, "A Fool There Was" was produced before only a fair audience at the Theatre Royal. That the play has a wild appeal for anything bizarre, unnatural and inhuman is eagerly belied by normal folk. Here then is a normal man, and "the lank of hair" (and the rest)—the unnatural, fatally fascinating woman of no account. The play tells how the ordinary happiness of a husband, wife and child may be destroyed by the machinations of an extraordinary woman and how the man deserts his own wife for the sake of the ■vampire." The author has contrived his finest efforts in the excellent contrast between the two women, and has woven int. the character of the wife a btautv that absolves the play from absolute morbidness. The efforts of the wife to win the erring husband from the wiles ,*>t the vampire appeal profoundly, and t nr.re is strong meat in the situation that show the husband hovering on the edge of suicide, the wicked joy of the vampire, and her oivn unintentional urinking of the poison. , Miss Mabel Irevor j>la y «d the part of the, abnormal .woman with strange powers. There is an intensity in her work that is alluring. It is possible to conceive that she is for the tune being the weird creature she, impersonates. Miss Violet Pa .ret is remarkable for her artistic restraint and perfect pose. She, pictures magnificently the wife of the demented man, and shows throughout splendidly as a temperamental actress. Mr. Hugh C. Buckler as iV* r •*, t f an lln P rea sion of absolute, faithfulness to the character. Indeed the work of these three peonle wis well nigh flawless. Mr. Gerald Souper, who plays the necessary part of the friend, does so with the nicest discrimination and little Miss Alice Jenems appeal to the hearts of all by her nice Si" \ hß part of the -fool's" m,lvWin f" ° keH ' ly fo,l ™ed the unfolding of a very remarkable story assa""** SAUNDERS' BIOGRAPH PICTURES. The fine Vitngrapl. production, "A M " as suffldent attraction to fill W Inteley 11 all last night. •• The Melbourne Cup" and "Derby, mil » werp n S lt' P ° PUlar itoms inclu ' ded 0" last night b programme. The Melbourne Cup will be repeated again at to-night's change when the latest Patlie Gazette t!; i»' .' rhe Xaval Disaster at Toulon (showing the explosion of the Snf , Ir T?' kl i LibC, ' te ) Wi « I>o ta!' dmkd The dramatic pictures are "The of C the Will ,?" ulow " an<l "White Rose ai, V\ L, V ° mastei 'Pi«'es by the ■ A Tll ° Mother" .(Selig) and Love of Summer Morn" (Kalem)? Saun deis_ lietuies will also show at Waitara to-nigh when the star item will be "A hoyal Divorce." The booking for the opera "lolantlw " to be staged by the Inglewood Oner-iti'c Society on November 30 and December 1 is very satisfactory, and a „!1T !' is assured The Jinal touchy ha c bem given to the splendid new seenen wWc has been especially painted for the mt duet.on by an experienced lady is e ,C time to fc, r evenings prove fine the societ 1J m