AMUSEMENTS:

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2670, 27 November 1909, Page 3 (Supplement)

AMUSEMENTS:

i - HIS MAJESTY’S.

LOCAL FIXTURES.

P.utlie Pictures.—Nightly.

Miss Ada Ferrar, who used to play leading lady to Mr. Julius Knight in Mr. J. O. Williamson’s touring companies in Neiv Zealand, is to appear in a one-act play. “The Gentlemen, of the Hoad,” at Mr. Herbert Trench’s repertory theatre,- the Haymarket, when 'lv.ng Lear,” now running, is withdrawn.

Besides “Miss Hook of Holland,” Mr. Tom Pollard has secured the Australian rights of two new musical comedies, “The Belle of Cuba,” and “Grethel. Both, works will shortly be put into rehearsal for the company’s southern tour. “The Belle of Cuba” was composed by Mr. Newton Abbott and 1 the “book” written by Mr. Barton Trent, both composer and librettist, who are Londoners, having former successes to their credit-. With “Miss Hook,” these new works are expected to provide the company with sufficient material for extended seasons in the Dominion, and probably in Australia. Miss Ellen Terry’s popularity was shown the other day in an interesting manner. Her husband, Mr. James Carew, is a member of Mr. George Alexander’s company which is playing, on tour Sir Arthur Pinero’s “His .House in Order,” and Mr. Alfred Sutro’s play, “A Builder of Bridges.” On the first performance in Edinburgh of Mr. Sutro’s plav Miss Terry was in a hox. The audience quickly recognised the famous actress, who. in response to calls for “Terry” and “Speech,” came to Hie •front of her box and bowed, with evident pleasure and satisfaction. Again, at the end of the performance, Mr. Alexander, coming before the curtain, referred to the pleasure it gave them to see Miss Terry in the house, and spoke of what he, as an actor, owed to her. Ober-Ammergau is once more attracting the attention of the world on account of the decennial repetition of the Passion Play next year. Since the representations in 1900, many chalets have been erected in the village which offer far better and more up-to-date accommodation ( for visitors than was obtainable then'. For the protection of the public, the Passion Play committee have thought it advisable, and have decided for the first time, to appoint official agents, to whom the public may apply for the reservation of accommodation and seats for the plays at the official rates. . The committee recognising the services rendered to them and to the public on the occasion of the Passion Play performances of 1870, 1880. 1890, and 1900, have appointed Messrs. Thomas Cook and Son as official agents for all countries outside Germany. One of the most amusing animal performances which has been seen in London was introduced at the Empire Theatre last month. It was given by Barnold’s dog and monkey actors, and it is called, appropriately enough, “ A Hot Time in Dogville.” The principal character is Dan, “the intoxicant canine,” who spends his time seeking fre- ! quent refreshment at the saloon bar, and each time emerging with increased unsteadiness of gait. Meanwhile some of the other inhabitants of Dogville make their appearance. One of the most striking features is a dog in Directoire costume and large picture hat. Incidentally a canine maiden leaves an upper room by a ladder and escapes with her lover. All this time Dan has been getting himself into a somewhat helpless condition. Finally he essays to depart, to the tune of “V>e on tGo Home Till Morning,” but soon collapses Then he staggers to a lamp-post the support of which he seems loath to abandon. At this moment an ofhcioiis policeman’s uniform interferes; he sounds an alarm for a waggon, and Han is speeding away to the station. The animals go through their performance entirely unaided. “The Cheat” will be one of the principal attractions of ~ the Williamson Dramatic Company, which is about to commence tlie Dominion tour. It is out-and-out melodrama. The. theme is a military one, launched on the night of the regimental dinner of the Guides, bound next day for Afghanistan and a brush with the valiant hillsmen. ''hat audience does not'welcome spectacular beginnings? The inevitable after-dinner game of cards for high stakes ated in an accusation' of cheating ing levelled against Captain Blanchard, son of a stirring old British General. Marked cards are discovered, •and, as the pack came from Blanchards bag, who was to guess that, lus despicable cousin, Captain Philip Bivers, for reasons in which love-y women are concerned, had pricked them °2 lle the backs of the players were conieniently turned? “Unlucky Jim is conseauently branded as a- cheat by his fellow officers, proclaimed a coward by his father, because he cannot, and others won’t, explain the reason for sudden resignation m the ftace of a cal l to arms, and it is also suggested later that he is a seducer. A revolver bu let seems the best way out of all this, until a girl—the one girl, of course—suggests a better—that he slO “make a fight for it.” So lie becomes a “ranker” in the fighting. Gordons, goes out to the hills with the troops, wins a V.C. for deeds of valor, and generally makes a name for himself as lnvate James. Meanwhile Rivers lias developed the drug habit m addition to his other vices, and hkewis© exhibits himself as a man of no heart. About the time he has got himself into bad odonr with the hillsmen for shelling defenceless women in a frontier villa o e, the brother officers are beginning to doubt whether Blanchard was not the scapegoat after all. The time conies when the frontier fort commanded y Rivers is in a- bad way, and simultaneously word comes that English women have L>een captured by the tribes and can only escape torture and otihei hor rors by the surrender of Rivers to the liillsmen’s vengeance. At that the villain dissembles, and after confessing hs misdeeds, makes an end of it with pistol shot. Arrives, then, the hero. Private James, of the Gordons, m hot haste, and very dusty. This is liis time for strenuous effort. He contrives to get captured by the enemy, to make a sensational escape, to return to the hiUmen in the disguise of Hirers and so irrocure the release of the English \vomcn—wlio are, of course, the heroines of the play—and to participate m a great spectacular finale, contrived by the arrival of the father, the general, with relief troops, and the laying down ] of arms by the hillsmen, who recognise in General Blanchard a “blood brother , of other days. *