ENTERTAINMENTS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2467, 3 April 1909, Page 4

ENTERTAINMENTS.

“THE LITTLE BREADWINNER.” His Majesty’s Theatre was well filled last evening, when Messrs Meynell ana Gunn’s dramatic company produced the pathetic melodrama. “The Little Breadwinner.” The principal character in the play is Meg, a little girl, daughter of parents who have been turned away by a rich grand-parent and are enduring poverty. Meg seeks to lighten the load by singing in the street. The rich grand-parent, however, relents, and the outcasts are again taken to the home of luxury. The play is full of pathos, but there was plenty of comedy to relieve it. Miss Queenie Williams played the park of Meg, and her acting was delightful. The little girl was s 5 natural and so free in her work that she at once entered into the good graces of the audience. Miss Williams, who has a sweet voice, sang “Daddy” very nicely. Miss Maggie Dickinson jilayed the boy Bobby Trott, and was quite at home in the part. Air. C. R. Stanford appeared for the first time this season in the character of Joseph Prior, a scheming private secretary. The part was that-v' 4 -' of the unpopular villain, and Mr. Stanford’s rendition received the usual hissing as a mark of appreciation of its merits. Sir. J. B. Atholwood played Lord William Dorringtou in his usual finished style, and Mr. Leo de Chateau, did good work as Charles Prior. Miss Beatrice Holloway made a sweet Margaret Devantry, and Miss Lillian Meyers a good Kate Cherry. The other characters were well represented. “THE STEPMOTHER.” To-night, the last night of the Meynell and Gunn season, will be presented for the first time in Gisborne Arthur, Shirley’s latest play, “The Stepmother.” The play is overflowing with villainous machinations, and yet it does not necessarily shock one, for love and laughter are introduced so frequently that smiles predominate for the greater part of the performance. The story is one which mainly concerns the welfare of Dannv (Miss Beatrice Holloway), a fine lad whose mother is murdered by evildoers who value money more than life. A plot- by the stepmother and a scoundrel ship-broker to rob a certain sea captain is discovered by his (the captain’s) unexpected homecoming, and justice is meted out Before, the curtain falls. The company will leave Gisborne to-morrow for Napier, where a brief season will be commenced on Monday night. MASKELYNES AND DE WANT'S MYSTERIES. For many years no name has been, so well-known throughout the civilised world in connection with mysteries and stage illusions as that of -John Neville Maskelyne. From the notable day when, as a young man, he exploded the craze for spiritualism in England, by srowing how the imposters effects were v produced, he has been constantly be- 5 fore the public, and the entertainmentgiven by his firm, Maskelyne, and Cooke, has been a feature gi London life for forty yeare. The records of the Egyptian and the St. George’s Halls shows an attendance of eleven million people and forty thousand performers, a record to be accounted for partly by the fact that such a constant tide of visitors flows through London, and partly by the extraordinary inventions of the master magician ,wbo last year produced and fought a lawsuit concerning a new illusion. Maskelvne’s lawsuitshave become famous, and have helped to make him one of the best known of Englishmen. That which obtained widest publicity was concerned with the box trick,-and was brought before theHouse of Lords. This identical box wiR be shown here in the magical sketch, “Will, the Witch, and the Watchman.” Mr Henry Heyward, an entrepreneur who first visited Australia in co-nia-nagement of West’s Pictures, conceived the idea of bringing Maskelyne and Cooke upon an antipodean tour, and the “Mysteries” will open a season of six ir'glits at His Majesty's Theatre on Wednesday next.