BALANCING WONDERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 September 1939, Page 7

BALANCING WONDERS

BREATHLESS ENTERTAINMENT . LAST NIGHT. .

CHINESE TROUPE AT REGENT THEATRE.

For breathless entertainment the Great North China Troupe, which appeared in the Regent Theatre last night before a capacity house, is by far the best thing of its kind seen in Masterton for many years. Supported by r talented company of variety artists, the Troupe, which presented its turns with whirlwind rapidity in the second half of the programme, provided a fitting climax to a programme that was excellent in every respect. So daring were some of the acts by these Chinese performers that there were members of the audience who were unable to watch balancing feats carried put amid the curtains over the stage. The settings were rich and colourful, depicting all the dazzling exotic splendour of the East.

The balancing and other feats carried out by l the troupe of fifteen were amazing and were executed with evident enjoyment. A small girl, for instance, could turn and bend herself into apparently impossible positions and at the same time balance two glasses of water on her face, one on her chin and another on her forehead. She first of all stood on the stage with, her head thrown backwards and with ■the glasses in position. She then bent backwards slowly until her head reached the stage. She doubled herself up and passed a rjng over her head and body, later removing the glasses with the calves of her legs and replacing them again in the same way. She then slowly resumed an upright posture with the glasses of water still balanced on her face. One of the most spectacular and breath-taking turns of the evening was that in which chair was piled on chair, and a performer carried out balancing feats on top of the tower with each addition to its height. Chairs were handed up until the flies were reached, while the young man continued to upend himself with the same composure and the same grinning countenance, even when he placed the topmost chair at an angle. It was a dizzy performance from the spectators’ point of view. Another star turn was that in which a member of the company performed on a twenty-foot bamboo pole balanced on the forehead of his assistant. At some stages the pole was bent almost like a bow. Diving through a frame of knives was child’s play to the performers and many other startling feats were performed with equal ease. Included in the Chinese troupe were a particularly graceful fan dancer, Chiu Chiu, and a nine-year-old Chinese Bobby Breen, known as Herbert Young, who captivated the audience with “Little Drummer Boy,” “Rose of Tralee” and “Gold in the Sky.” The supporting artists were also good, especially the ventriloquist and Latona and Sparks, acrobatic dancers: Alexander Cooper, “Royston,” Connolly and ■ Hoskin and Effie Fellows all fouifd well-deserved favour with thd audience.