ENTERTAINMENTS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 109, 16 January 1912, Page 6

ENTERTAINMENTS

MR. H. B. IRVING IN "HAMLET." A MEMORABLE EVENT. On Monday night next the great English actor, Mr. H. B. Irving, will make his initial and only appearance in New Plymouth, when he will be presented by the J. C. Williamson management in Shakespeare's famous tragedy, "Hamlet." The success achieved by Mr. Irving as the melancholy Dane in Auckland can be guaged when it is knowii that after the whole of the dress circle and stalls had been booked up for the entire run of the piece the queue which lined up outside the entrance of the cheaper portion of the theatre measured never less than a quarter of a mile, and the first rush on each occasion filled the gallery, which has a holding capacity of over 800 people. Judging by reports from London and I Australia, Mr. Irving's is undoubtedly the finest representation of "Hamlet" seen during the present generation. His "Hamlet" is said to be human and lovable and distinctly intellectual. It has, it is said, ao much subtlety and so I much variety in the moods. Mr. Irving brings forcibly out all the characteristics of Shakespeare's "Hamlet," showing his affectionate nature, his love for his father, for his mother and for Ophelia, whom he turns aside awhile because he discovers that she allows herself to be used as a decoy to trap him and test his sanity. Mr. Irving's conception of "Hamlet" is said to be so beautiful that it sends one away from the theatre feeling intense sympathy for the Prince who found himself in such a hard ,case, and whose personality is instinct, with the . spirit which animates men to-day as it did in long centuries ago. Miss Dorothea Baird who will appear as Ophelia is said to be one of the most distinguished i actresses the English stage has even known. The cast supporting Mr. Irving | will be the same as that which interpreted "Hamlet" in London last year, including Messrs Frank Tyars, Henry Vibart, Tom Reynolds (these three artists were associated with the late Sir Henry Irving in many of his greatest productions), Eric Maxon, Arthur Whitby, Stanley Howlett, W. Beaumont, Arthur Curtis, C. Treyor Roper, J. Cass, Walter Gibbs, W. H. Granam, Roland Pertuis, Claude Beerbohm, Ronalf Byram, C. Arthur, also Misses Helen Rous and Irene Brown. The plans will be opened at Collier's on Thursday next at 8 a.m. A queue will be formed from 7.30.