WM. ANDERSON'S DRAMATIC COMPANY

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8150, 28 May 1906, Page 5

WM. ANDERSON'S DRAMATIC COMPANY

♦ ■ The Anderson Dramatic Qpmpany inaugurated a two-nights season in the Masterton Town Hall on Saturday evening, the initial production being "The Work Girl," the work of Arthur Shirley and George Conquest. There was a large audienoe, and the unravelling of a ratber intricate plot was watehed with intense interest. The drama is one which is full of startling and lurid ■ituations, and it gives scope for a wide varietyjof aoting. Though the main body ; uf the piece is f sensational, there is a judicious intermingling of comedy, and this factor helped ta make the evening's entertainment all the more enjoyable. The whole play tends to bring forward the evils of gambling, and in it n contained a wholesome les- ' son on that, vice, and though thereis some heavy aoting required at tmes, Mr Anderson's Company is quite equal to the demands, and the caste on Saturday night was of even merit. Of the ladies, Miss ( Helen Burdett, a B the wife of Frank , Belton, the oharacer whom interest t chiefly centres,- gave a strong interpretation of a somewhat v taxing part.. Miss Burdett had a double role to play, appearing first as the wife of a.ruined gambler, and after her death, as "a'common work girl," tfie daughter of the deceased Mrs Belton, and bar pourtrayal of the two parts met with a full measure of appreciation. Miss* Maisie Maxwell had a part which suited her admirably, and she was . responsible for a good deal of the fun of the piece. The staid, cold daughter of the designing and wicked Silas Septhon, a- finanoial agent, to whom even murder is as nothing in his mad desire for " wealth and title, found an able exponent in Miss Daisy Strathmore, and Miss Georgie Leighford as Madame La Marshe, manageress of a largo factory, displayed the qualities essential to so important a position. Of the male characters, priority of place must be given to jvir Harry Diver, who, as Frank Beltou, played the part of an unfortunate devotee of the cards and dioe, and especially good was he in his search for, and subsequent t finding of his lost daughter, from whom twelve years of prison life had separated him. The part of the cool, scheming villain, who was the ruin of Belton, was allotted tc. Mr Walter Dalgleish, who gave a consistent and foioeful delineation of the unpopular role. Mr Keely Kendale, of "Queen's evidence" fame, and a fugitive from justice, wars decidedly good, and especially did he gain the approbation of the audience for his aoting in the closing scenes, where Septhon is brought to book, and truth and justice are made to prevail. A part without which the drama would have been lacking in one of its essentials was that filled by Mr Stirling White, who, as Loo Genesis (Septhon's partner in crime), acted his part with a true appreciation -bf worth. Mr Frank Reis, as the Cookney hawker, who supplied the bulk of tne oomedy, handled his part excellently. To-night the Company will present a dramatisation of & popular . Australian bushranging story, "Thunderbolt." The piece is said to abound in thrilling situations so uornrnon in the early bushranging days of Australia. A feature of the play will be the introduction of a coach and four horses. '