ENTERTAINMENTS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2425, 13 February 1909, Page 5

ENTERTAINMENTS.

“WHEN. LONDON" SLEEPS.”

Caricature of real life though it be, there is that in melodrama which appeals strongly to the tastes and sympathies of the average man and woman. Probably this is the bold, if crude, delineation of the characters. The line of demarcation between right and wrong is firmly drawn in melodrama; there are but two colors, black and white, no; shades or half tones. The good people arc very good indeed, and. tlio bad are horrid. Then virtue is always triumphant, and vice, no matter how supported by wealth or intellect, is always defeated. That is how we, or most of us, would have the world wag. Everybody is pleased to see goodness enjoying the blessings of life, and badness suffering their converse. This is not the invariable rule in real life, and if one cannot always find it there, it is some consolation to us to resort to a region where it is sure to be. Such a region is that of melodrama. All the characteristics of that region are to be found in the section thereof which was presented to the Gisborne public by Mr. William Anderson’s Dramatic Company in His Majesty’s Theatre last night. “When “London Sleeps” is a play constructed on good old Surrey Side lines, with a lovely and much enduring heroine, a high-mind-ed and athletic hero, and a- perfectly fiendish villain ,who persecutes the heroine with persistency and ingenuity worthy of a better cause,- through four acts. That the play was to the taste of the public was proved by two facts: the theatre was crowded, and laughter and applause were well nigh incessant. To do the members of Mr. Anderson’s company justice, their presentation of the play was a good one. They contrived to almost invest its impossibilities with an air of reality, and they carried the sympathies of the audience in the right direction—towards the side of purity and goodness—through a series of exciting scenes to the culminating sensation of the fourth act, wherein the -heroine is saved from the fiery death to which she had been consigned by the fiendish machinations of the villain. Miss Florence Richter gave a successful; womanly and altogether effective delineation of that long-suffering young lady, one Queeiiie Carruthers, a slack wire artiste, of great beauty and high character. Miss Hilda Fraser acted with as much naturalness as the role would allow in the part of Hilda Corrode, a circus performer of ail altogether different stamp, a woman with a discreditable past, and almost, though not quite, devoid of right feeling. Miss Emmie South was piquant and pleasing as Carrie Jones, a pert but true-hearted circus rider. Miss Lillie Bryer made an amusingly effective character study of the part of Carrie’s mother, Signora Jonesio. Miss Queenie Sefton deserves credit for her artistic presentation of the role of Maudie de Frere, a woman besmirched, yet far from being altogether bad. Credit is also due to little Miss Poppie Jacobson, who -gave a simple and affecting portrayal of Delia. Hilda Corrode’s child. -Vs David Englehart. the athletic hero, Mr. Crosbie Ward was sufficiently forcible and manly. Mr. Herbert Linden represented the villain, Captain Rodney Haynes, with an assumption of cold-blooded calculating wickedness which did infiinte credit to his powers as an actor in such parts. Mr. Frank Crossley, as (Sammy Birth, a clown, Mr. Stirling Whyte .as Signor Jonesio. a circus proprietor. Mr. J. L. Laurence, as the Hon. Bertie Broomhoad. and Mr Frank Reis as the comic villain, Mark Blackwood, cooperated very creditably in supplying the farcical element necessary in a well-constructed melodrama, The minor roles were well filled, and a word of praise is due to the manner in which the play was mounted. Another is due. to the very creditable performances of the orchestra. To-night Carlton Wallace’s drama “The Village Blacksmith,” will be presented. On Monday the sensational detective drama “Tlio Face at the Window,” is to be staged, and on Tuesday the season will conclude with the up-to-date American version of “East Lynne.”