AMATEUR DRAMATIC PERFORMANCE.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 558, 23 September 1869, Page 2

AMATEUR DRAMATIC PERFORMANCE.

As we mentioned in Tuesday's issue, the members of the Amateur Dramatic Club have once more appeared before the public of Westport, with the double object of supplying to some extent the dearth of legitimate amusement and increasing the waning funds of the society. We have already strongly urged the claims of the Club to public patronage, and the large attendance, in spite of very rough weather, on Monday evening, proved that tho public share our opinion as to its merits. The " Rent Day," the piece selected on this occasion, is not new to a Westport audience, having been played before by the Club, in the early days of its existence; with, however, an almost entirely different set of characters. We missed on Monday the faces of many valued members whom the various chances of goldfield life have removed from among us, but we may congratulate the Club on the efficient manner in which their places have been supplied, and generally on the care and completeness with which the piece was put upon the stage. Of t je play itself we cannot, with our limited space, attempt any description. It is called in the bills a " domestic drama " —why we do not pretend to say. If it is not very lively, it is, at least, highly moral. Vice is, of course, triumphant, and Virtue unfortunate, until scene the last, when the tables are turned, and all the good people are made happy and all the bad ones found out and punished—as we know invariably happens in real life. Mr Atkinson, as " Old Crumbs," an unjust steward—the heavy villain of the piece—played with care and judgment. Mr Berry, as Martin Heywood, the conventional British farmer, was careful and painstaking as usual, but was, if anything, rather deficient in energy. There is a good deal of stamping, cursing, and general objurgation in .the part, but Mr Berry, like Botto"m, and probably with the same motive, cursed "as gently as any sucking dove" and "roared as an't were a nightingale." Miss Kate Grant played the part of Eachel Heywood, an injured and wrongfully suspected wife, with even more than her usual pathos and success 1 . We are glad that Mr JN T otman has for once been relieved from the role of " heavy father," to which circumstances have hitherto doomed him, and has been permitted to exhibit his undoubted ability in a more congenial character. His "Silver Jack," a highwayman, was a very liyely and spirited perform-

ance. Mr Arenas made a most effective and artistic "second robber." Mr White, who represented Robert Grantley, the young squire, who appears in the nick of time to make everything right, walked through his part with his usual judgment. The comic element in the play is supplied by Bullfrog, (Mr Purnell,) a facetious auctioneer and appraiser. Mr Purnell played with a great deal of humor, and made the most of a rather difficult character. He was ably supported by Mrs Nicholas, who, it is unnecessary to say, made a very charming Polly Briggs. Mr Bishop played Toby Heywood in a manner which deserves a longer notice that our space will permit, while Mr Courtney proved his ability to play a more important character than Beanstalk. Mr Nottnan followed with one of his clever step dances, which was, of course, encored. The afterpiece was, we presume, intended chielly as a medium to introduce to a Westport audience Mr Percival Bear, president of the Charleston Dramatic Club, whose services had been kindly offered to the sister society in Westport. Mr Bear showed much humor and knowledge of stage business, and possesses undeniable abilities as a comedian, but we regret that he, or the Club, or whoever is responsible for the selection, should have chosen so questionable a piece for its display. We do not, of course, expect in a modern farce a rational plot, probable incidents, or sensible dialogue, but we are entitled to expect from an amateur society that they should select a piece whose whole humor does not depend on equivocal situations and unequivocal double entendres. We venture to predict that the interest which the fair sex has hitherto so deservedly shown in the Amateur Dramatic Club will not survive many such performances as " Grrimshaw, Bagshaw, and Bradshaw."