Theatre Royal.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3306, 26 July 1879, Page 2

Theatre Royal.

*!.!!,. -^^--^^AMijwrr '-'■ ■■' -;-■■ | Considering [the', inclemency w of t the .weather 1 there, was a good attendance at Mr Chaplin^s and Miss Osborne's benefit last night. The only characters worthy of notice were Mr Chaplin's tfamlet. Miss . Osborrie's Ophelia, iMr r Bland , Holt's . GraTe»digßer,: Mr McGowan's Poloniun, and Mr Burford's King; |he others werje below mediocrity and the action of the piece' was mirred once or twice by som;e of the rank and file forgetting their parts, a palpable r^ Sticik;j''^'jocjpiirrin^ ] bin!"!b'ne occasion. Mir, Chaplin's Hatalet may be Itisily caHed 1; his,'<^/'-tf'a«^ a^-iflighit 'well be Shakespere's realisation of the pharacter,'',^e dresffisi ttie^cjiaracjerj with great' taste, and his great elocutionary powers giro a nerer-to-be forgetten effect ,to the grand soliloquies and declamations of the play. The passage commencing ; "To bt'tOt not -to be> ih'at is the tjuestion." (

Was. rendered with great expression, i and bis acting in the scene where he 'compares bis father and his oiicle'i portraits most effective. Miss Hose Osborne made another hit in the characf tejr of Ophelia; we I never] remember seeing the mad scene performed better! .Her powers of showing (pa'ssioriatej, tinrestrained emotion were instanced by ber Lady Isabel in "EastLynne," and her impersonation of the quiet grief of the mad Ophelia—a grief deeper than tearsj and lamentations—gave further,' evidence of her powers. Mr Bland Holt's gravedigger was an excellent representation; and that the audience were in a slate of suppressed merriment; iill the time. He travestied the part neither, in word or action. The Polonius of Mr McGowan, and the King of Mr, Burford were excellent. The play was very well mounted, and it is to be regretted that the inefficiency of some of the rank and file marred what, from the superb acting of Mr Chaplin and Miss Osborne, would have, been an unqualified success. !