ENTERTAINMENTS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2250, 23 July 1908, Page 1

ENTERTAINMENTS.

THE .MALLINSON BONG RECITALS. The Mallinson Song Recital Company arrived at Gisborne yesterday por the s.s. Moana, after having concluded u. most successful season at Auckland, whero the recitals wero received with, the greatest enthusiasm, the unique character and beauty of tlie compositions being received by the audience with unbounded applause. -To-morrow will be a. redletter day for Gisborne. The audience will hear the compositions of an English song-writer the peer of Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Wolf, Franz, offering vocal wares which will number him for future generations amongst these first magnitude stars. What Elgar is amongst his contemporaries as a writer of oratorio, this man is as a song-writer, and his contributions to this section' of his art should bo .the dawn of a. new and nobler era amongst the makers of this most delightful form of music. He has an ideal exponent of his work, his wife,. Madame Steinha ucr, who will exhibit to perfection the merits of his work. - The company also includes Mr. William Robyns, the well-known Australian basso ;Miss Rohe Kussmann, the charming young violinist; and Miss Evelyn Wyman, the gifted young pianist. ■HIGH-CLASS PLAYS, “High-class plays,” said Mr. Allan Hamilton to a representative of this paper, “do not necessarily me in plays that are above the heads of the people. The true interpretation of tlio expression is refinement of theme, skilful construction, entertaining qualities, and the creation of a natural atmosphere. Just as Mark Twain, or even ‘Mr. Dooley,’ can propound a philisophical problem with the most humorous remark, so can a clever dramatist drivo forcibly home to the hearts and minds of his audience somo great striking truth in a simple and direct manner. It is not therefore necessary to soar to the heights of Ibsen or Mactcnlinck in search of wisdom. Many good morals and many forcible truths can bo found in simple, wholesome dramas. It is my purpose to endeavor to givo to the Astra lastin' public, the best I can find of this description of drama. Such plays "as “A Message from Mars” — wit'll which I am proud t 0 say I was associated —wild always find an eager audience. My present enterprise of this kind is “The Prince Chap,” in which I will have the honor of reintroducing tho now famous New Zealand actor and ail old-time favorite—Mr. Harry Roberts. No play that has been under my management for'many years illustrates better what I mean by high-class plays than “The Prince Chap.” Its essence is naturalness, the aim of tho author being to create thoroughly possible situations which‘carry themselves along to a perfectly logical conclusion. No good play should have any straining after effect, it should carry the audience along with it to the finish just as though the audience belonged for tlio time being to its own atmosphere. I think the keynote of good modern plays is the reaction of a natural atmosphere. The day is past when melodramatic trash can arouse the: sensibility of playgoers, who have learned to understand the artificiality of the methods employed in this class of production. While heroism will always be the right chord to strike in drama, I think that all lovers of the theatre will in future demand that this essential shall' not overleap the Bounds of good sense and every-day possibilities, Audiencos to-day ilove realism, oivt not the realism of a horse and pair dashing down a painted street. They look rather for those realistic touches of •human nature which make them feel that the people/m the stage are within their own kith and kit!, and that it would he quite possible for them to know the characters in real life and to see the same incidents enacted,”