AMUSEMENTS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 15 April 1913, Page 6

AMUSEMENTS.

TOWN HALL p ICTURES . The. Town Hal) . %voll fifed last iwght to » >fl - topsS the . attractive programme of , fl rarrvfltic,comic, scenic and topical m t j, l{lt is being ptlt on by tne A!;' Picture and Entertainment OompviTiy. A feature of the while o^.^] K> p ; ( . tlll . es ; s that they are quite to the district, and are put upon ■ .y Hl scroon with a , steadiness lf,J 4 makes them pleasant as well as ir /t?-resti --.ft to tlie auditor. The &tar aim, "Greed for Gold," is in itself ■ well worth the pri<'e of admission to ! see. It is one of the est dramas that Pathos have sent to ' the Dominion. "A St'ldier 1 * Furlough" depicts Private Robert Adair, who gets a ten da.y*.V furlough to visit his sick mother Robert has to return to his regiment. He. haves his young brother Tom, in care of Reeo, an old friend. The same I day, Reeo is accosted by a Squaw man, who wants money, which is refused. The Squaw-man. gets the assistance of two Indian's to rob the house. He trie? to got the Indians to shoot Tom and IR :co, hut they refuse, whereupon the Squaw-man shoots and kills Tom. ! Reco finds Robert before he gets hack to the. fort, and he returns and tracks- the Squaw-man. After a fearfill fight on the side of a mountain, Rohert clinkes the assassin to death. Supporting this exciting drama and f the great "star" film are a series of I most interesting scenic and topical film's, and a host of side-splitters. | This programme will be shown for a I las'fc time to-night, and nobody should i miss seeing it.

THOMPSON-PAYNE PICTURES.

"ZIKA, QUEEN OF THE GYPSIES" Despite the inclemency of the weather a large audience greeted the second screening of the current change at the T.P. Electric Theatre last evening. "Zika" again received well-merited approval. This subject is brimful of astonishing and novel incidents, thrilling escapes and sensational fepisode?. The central figure in the drama is Zika, a Gipsy queen, who is served well and faithfully by a troop of Gipsv Amazons. The plot of this picture is a masterpiece, and is .superbly acted from start to finish, the exciting incidents in each part lending a continual thrill to the onlooker. In support of this fine feature drama, was shown the Rex production, "Lost Years,-' which gives a very pathetic story cf how a wedding was postponed for many years, through the bridegroom being lost at sea. Afteir a Robinson Crusoe life, however, a reunion is affected, which repairs the mind of the waiting bride, which had become deranged. "The Prison Ship," a Kalem film, recalls to mind the days of the press-gang and gives a realistic and live plot. The "Toppical Budget" supplied the latest animated news. Several fine scenic .studies were shown among "Beauty Spots of Italy" and "Picturesque Bosnia." The comedy element was well in evidence, and included "A Guilty Conscience," "'Wanted—A Cook," "Meeting Mamie's Mother," "Spite" and "Fun in the Jungle." This programme will be shown for the last time to-night. For Wednesday the management annour.ee two big fea.ture dramas in "The Mystery of the 7 o'clock Express." (2500 ft in length) and iitii "Fra Diavolo," a story of brigands, 3000 feet in length.

J. C. WILLIAMSON LTD. "THE BLUE BIRD." To-morrow morning at the Dresden the box plan will be opened at eight o'clock for the initial and only production here of Maeterlinck's worldfamous play "The Blue Bird," which is to be staged at the Town Hall on Friday night mext by the J. Williamson's Company, which numbers over 100 artists. Anticipating the same large demand for S'eats which took place in Auckland, the management will have a staff of ushers in attendance from an early hour, to form a queue, so that the earliest arrivals shall have first-choice of seats. Judged even a* a play containing a series of beautiful gorgeous spectacles "The Blue Bird" would be received with approbation wherever presented, for it is said the limit of ingenuity has been reached in amazing transformations and in the manipulation of the lighting effectsj. 'Those who have read the book of "The Blue Bird," wherein, th? author describes most marvellous and instantaneous changes of scenes, .could scarcely bring themselves to believe that these could be, as it were, materialised on the stage, but the critics elsewhere state that they fully satisify the imagination as' to what those scenes should be, and that they create that spirit and "atmosphere" so essential to any stage representation, of the Belgian author's wonderful fantasy. The stupendous electric and mechanical effects necessary for the production of "The Blue Bird" make it absolutely essential for a large staff of electricians to travel ahead of the company, and a duplicate set of mate-

rial is also canned. These have already come to hand, and everything ♦ill he in readiness hefore the company's arrival. Like all true fairy tales "The Blue Bird" belongs to no particular country, aaid it hay proved itself equally at homo amongst the Russian Slavs, the volatile Parisians, the sentimontal Americans, and the ,stolid matter-of-fact English. Professor Rhe.inhardt, recently presented it to the Berlin public, wh.re it was enthusiastically received. Children may book seats at half-price.