PRINCESS' THEATRE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 111, 12 June 1875, Page 13

PRINCESS' THEATRE.

It had been announced that the engagement of Mr. and Mrs Bates would be opened with the play of the "-Hunchback," ' but owing to the illness of Mr. Bates, the " Lady of Lyons " was substituted, Mr. J. B. Steele assuming the r6le of Claude Mtlnotte. On the following night "East Lynne" w*s produced, and on Saturday night " Lucrezia Borgia." The two former piece i have been so recently presented, during the engagements of M iss Howard and Mrs. Hoskins — and the delineations of those ladies are so fresh in the minds of theatre-goers — that no doubt the i jndition of the characters by Mrs. Bates had to be tested in a g ;eat measure by comparison. For our part, we are bound to confess 5 that the pieces mentioned are not those bent adapted to display the undoubted talents of which Mrs. Bates is possessed, as it is in sensational drama that she is seen to best advantage. In some respects nature has not been so bountiful to her as to Miss Howard or Mrs. Hoskins, a f act which becomes most apparent in the assumption of such characters as Pauline and Lucrezia Borgia. On Monday evening Mr. Bates made his first appearance in the character of Moneypenny in Dion. Boucicault's emotional drama of " The Long Strike," and the prolonged and hearty greeting which was accorded him testified to the estimation in which he is held, and must have been flattering indeed. The piece is one of those struggles between capital and l&boui' in. the manufacturing districts in England, in the course of whioh one of the mill-owners is secretly shot down, and the hero, Jim Starkee, arrested and triid for the murder. Fortunately, however, by the alibi of a Cellic sailor named Johnny Reilly, who has magnanimously resigned the hand of his love to his more successful rival, Starkee is proved innocent, and the drama winds up in the most orthodox felicitous fashion. As the unhappy Jane Learoyd, the daughter of the real murderer, for whose crime her lover has been charged, Mrs. Bates -was most successful, her impassioned entreaties to the lawyer to save the innocent victim being given with a feeling and effect to which it was impossible to be deaf, and which ultimately moved the man of law, as it evidently did the audience. Withoiit doubt the best character in the piece is that of Moneypenny, an eccentric but kind hearted lawyer, who, beneath a brasque and rugged manner, possesses a heart brimf ull of tenderness and kindly feeling. His struggles between his inner and outer self, to cover the kindly promptings of his heart, which spared no trouble or expense to alleviate the misery of his unhappy client, and his wish to assume the flinty selfishness of the profession, were supremely amusing, and kept the audience in a continued state of merriment. " The Long Strike " is not by any means the best effort of Mr. Boucicault, but although furnished with no mazy plot to unravel, containing no sensational situations to embellish it, is not devoid of interest, which, however, is mainly owing to but two or three characters in the drama. The first and second act is inclined to drag, and were it not for the comicalities of Mr. Keogh, as the nautical soa of Erin, with bis light-hearted humor and infectious frolic, would become positively wearisome. In the third act, however, Mr. Bates comes upon the scene, and from thence until the fall of the curtain the proceedings become brimfuE of merriment and interest. Mr. Steele enacted the part of the leader ot the strike, but although at times lacking sufficient animation for the exigencies of the situation, his rendering of the demented murderer is deserving of praise. Mr. H. Stoneham — a new and valuable acquisition to the company— appeared as the hero, if there be such a character in the drama, and ranked next to Mr. Bates in order of merit. The small part of a rather officious and apparently übiquitous policeman fell to the lot of Mr. Austin Power, and lost nothing in his hands. The other characters in the caste, though numerous, were entirely subsidiary, and call for no particular mention. We cannot, however, pass over the very excellent scenery with which the piece is dressed, Mr. Willis having secured a well-deserved call before the curtain for the capital representation of a cotton mill at night. On Wednesday night Mrs. Bates appeared as Queen Elizabeth in the play of that name, a character which, on a former occasion, she represented with much success. We regret to say, however, that she was suffering from a very severe cold, but notwithstanding that disadvantage, and the depressing influence of a small attendance, she bravely struggled through to the end. Mrs. Bates' personation of the haughty and wayward Queen, alternately swayed by love and ambition, was a most careful a i finished piece of acting. Whether as the jealous woman fearing . powers of a rival, or the despotic sovereign hurling retributio on the head of a presumptuous subject, she was equally effective ; and, in that dread hour when dissolution was at hand, and tottering on the brink of the grave, she sees her victims pass in succession before her, her remorse and terror was thrilling in its re: lity. Bat perhaps the scene in which Mrs. Bates appeared to jreatest advantage was that in which she was about to crown, with her own hands, the son of the murdered Queen of Scots, bin the premature proclamation of her successor causes her to replace -he crown upon her head, and declare that she is still the Sovere nof England. Taken as a whole it must be admitted that Queen .lizabeth is one of Mrs. Bates' best delineations, and is the more fi -taring when it is remembered that it is a character in which but f ivr could achieve success. We notice that Bichard 111. is announced for Saturday evening.