MR. COTTERELL'S ENTERTAINMENT.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 572, 26 October 1869, Page 2

MR. COTTERELL'S ENTERTAINMENT.

A temporary lull in the " war of parties," between Mr G-ibbs's meeting on Friday evening and last night's demonstration, was taken advantage of bv Mr Cotterell to introduce to a Westport audience his new "Drawing-Room Talk and Enframed Pictures." The very favorable comments of the Nelson Press, in which city Mr Cotterell recently made his first public appearance, prepared us to expect a very pleasant evening's amusement, and when we say that Mr Cotterell was able, almost entirely unassisted, and with the scantiest appliances, to keep his audience in almost continuous laughter for nearly two hours it will be admitted that our anticipations were more than realised. The entertainment commenced with a selection from an original— a verv original opera, " Humbugiana," an amusing burlesque of the spasmodic school of singers, and an extraordinary Maori ditty the accompaniment in both instances being of thu same ridiculously simple and simply ridiculous description. Mr Cotterell next assumed successively the characters of a mesmerist and his patient, and the ease and rapidity with which he adapted his features to the conterfeit presentment of the convalescent patient, the grumbler, or wandering senility, was exceedingly happy. The next " unframed picture," Dr Eidgett, a nervous and fussy University lecturer, who witli the aid of a black board succeeds in proving that at pre. senttwo and two make four, was exceedingly good and repeatedly applauded. A very good comic song, " Beauty and the Beast," concluded the first part of the entertainment. The next selection, the "Wedding Breakfast," was, perhaps, the most successful of auy of Mr Cotterell's impersonations. "The " make-up," the tones, and the speeches of the different characters—whether the pompous Br Parder proposing in lugubrious accents the health of the bride and bridegroom, with the hitter's inarticulate reply, or the " comic" man proposing the ladies, or the hopeless breakdown of the hobbledehoy who is their representative—were simply inimitable; the only fault to be found with the speeches was that, unlike their models, they were almost too short.

We cannot, however, pretend to describe all Mr Cotter-ell's pictures in detail, but we must not omit that of a thrice-widowed lady who confides to the audience her experiences with each dear departed in a manner irresistibly comic. We have said enough to show our conviction that Mr Cotterell possesses undoubted abilities as an actor. He has a pleasing voice, a good address, and apparently unlimited control over his facial muscles ; and, in fact, he wants only experience and professional training to take high rank as a comedian. There are " tricks in every trade," and the dramatist's is no exception to the rule. ludeed, the only wonder is that in so ambitious a first attempt Mr Cotterell should have been so successful. Should he determine, as we trust he will, to adopt the stage .as a profession, we recommend him to lose no time in submitting himself to a regular tra ning, in which case we may hope at some not distant date to hail him as a rising " star " in the theatrical world. We regret that, owing probably to the insufficient notice given, the audience was not so numerous as the excellence of the entertainment justified.