AMUSEMENTS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10214, 17 April 1911, Page 6

AMUSEMENTS.

'"THE SNOWBALL."

An excellent holiday entertainment; was provided at the Masterton Town Hall on Saturday evening by the "Mountebanks," who presented Mr Sydney Grundy's comedy, "The Snowball," to rather a small audience. Tho play was bristling with humour from the rise to the fall of tho curtain. Felix Featherstone (Mr C. F. Page), desires to attend the opera by himself, so tells his wife (Miss Irene Mason) that ho is going to a dinner. On the other hand, Mrs Featherstone and her sister Ethel, also wish to see the opera on the quiet, and they inform Mr Featherstone that they are going to a classical concert. Husband and wife both see each other at the opera. Mr Featherstone decides to have a joke with his wife, but he is unaware of the fact that she has seen him at the opera. He leaves a note in her workbasket, requesting her to meet him after everybody has gono to bed. Mrs Featherstone answers the note, signing herself "Penelope," who is the maidservant. The answer is to the effect that Penelope is disgusted at such a proposal, and threatens to tell Felix's wife. Mrs Featherstone gives the work-basket to the servant, and her husband thinks he has made a mistake in the basket. Poor Mr Featherstone's joke grows like a snowball as it rolls, until he gets in a very awkward position, all through not taking his Uncle John's advice, who, in tho early stages, advised him not to write the note, Uncle John and Mr Harry Prendergast (Mrs Featherstone's sister's young man), refuse to believe that Felix mistook the basket, and they both threaten to inform his wife. ' Mr Featherstone, who is his wife's sister's (Ethel's) guardian, consents to Ethel's mariago with his uncle's son if his uncle promises not to tell. The same promise of marriage is made with Mr Prendergast. Ethel is horrified when Ae realizes that she has been promised to John Thornycroft's (Uncle John's) son. In the third act the "snowball" commences to thaw. Felix tells his wife the truth, and she tells him her part of the story, and the whole matter is cleared u». The threats of Uncle John, Mr Prendergast, and the servant are then of no consequence. Felix consents to Mr Prendergast's marriage to Ethel, and the curtain falls on a happy scene. The acting throughout the niece was nerfect. Mr Page and Miss Irene Mason as M'* and Mrs Featherstone, were splendid, and one could almost imagine that Felix was in reality in the awkward position ho acted. Miss Moflie Marshall. a.s Penelope, took a prominent part in tho delivery of messages, and she filled her wart well. The rolo of Mrs Feathprstone's sister was filled by Miss Eva Sharpe in a car/able manner. The acting of Mr Viviai Rhind (Uncle John), and Mr C. Bentlev Russell (Harrv was also all that could be desired, and on the whole the entertainment was of a first-class crder. Tho comoanv will jrrrain nresent "Tho Snowball" at the Town Hall tonight.