STAGELAND.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12144, 21 September 1907, Page 7

STAGELAND.

OPEKA HOUSE BOOKINGS

Sept. 25 and 26. —Salvation Army Bio-

ram a. Sept. 27 and 28 Fuller's Vaudeville Entertainers. Oct. B—Allan Hamilton—Maude Hiklyard. Octo. 19.— E. Geach—Wilioughby-Ward Company. Oct. 29 to 31.—Pollard Opera CoinOctober 29, 30, 31—Pollard Opera Company. Nov. 9 and li—St. "Mary's Dramatic Club. November 12 'to 14.—-Allan Ha-miiton— "Home, Sweet Home" Company. November 28.—Edwin Geach. Nov. 28 E. Geach—Frank Thurton. Dec. 12 —Convent Annual Entertainment. * Dec. 13—High School—" Lady of the Lake." Dec. 25 to 27. —Cooper's Biograph Company.

BY MASQUE.

Private advice was received in Wellington on Thursday from Kurrikurri, New South Wales, that Mrs. Tom Fitzgerald's circus opened there, with success, on Wednesday night. A visit will be paid to New Zealand shortly. Herr Benno Scherek has engaged Madame Alida Loman, a famous lyric soprano, from Amsterdam, for his next tour of Australia and New Zealand.

A waltz, entitled " The Southern Cross," figured in the programme of a recent State ball at Buckingham Palace. Its composer is the Countess of Da-rntey, an Australian, who, as Miss Murphy, of Beechworth, Victoria, married the famous cricketer, the Hon. Ivo Bligh, now Lord Darnley. It is stated that Miss Marion Grey, who came out as leading lady for the Julius Knight Dramatic Company, is returning to England. The Georgia Magnet (Annie Abbott) is so far from being dead that her jiasband is suing her for desertion. ,Mr. Frank Thornton has secured the Australasian rights of two curtainraisers, entitled " Clause No. 6 " and " The Bookworm," both of which are by Charles Windermere. They will be produced during the forthcoming tour of the Commonwealth and New Zealand.

" The Liars" was performed at ■'■he Criterion Theatre, London, on the 20th July. The success of this revival of " The Liars " has been remarkable, and it would be difficult To cite another instance in which a modern play revived three times in London has proved so attractive.

Mr. George Buller will look after Mr. Allan Hamilton's interests during the New Zealand tour of the Maud Hildr yard Dramatic Company. Mr. George H. Barnes will do likewise for Messrs. Meynell and Gunn. The Andrew Mack Dramatic Company produced " Arrah-Na-Pogue" at Her Majesty's Theatre, Sydney, asfc Saturday evening. The success of Meynell and Gunn's Harcourt Beatty-Madge Macintosh Company is announced by private cable from Sydney, where the combination made their initial appearance ;n Walter Howard's romantic drama, "Her Love Against the World." Miss Macintosh caused a profound sensation.

What is the proper term to apply to a living picture machine"/ Apparently, this is a horrible mystery. A glance through the " Era." reveals the following terms —and there are others: —Bioscope, biograph, cinematograph, kinetoscope, hipposcope, bio-tableau, barrascope, filmograph, .theatreoscope, operascope, pepisoope, Edisonograph, padscope, higpograh, vivagragh, bio-noco-scope, doutto&cope, etc. Evidently you pay your money and take your choice. " Footlight," in the " Freelance," says: —The aspirations of the newlyrich to shine in the social firmament have long^ been favourite themes with playwrights, who find much material for humour in the gaucheries with which their victims reveal themselves in the drawing-roomsj)f the great. But there is an undercurrent of tragedy also in the ambitious pai'venu, and in " Mr Hopkinson," presented at the Wellington Opera House during the past week by the Willoughby—-Ward Company, this under-current has been depicted with unerring faithfulness by the writer, Mr. R. C. Caton. " Mother Goose" commences-, a fifteennights' season in Wellington on Monday. " Lognette " says the Maud Hildyard Company, through their non-arrival by the Mokoia in time to open on Monday last, sustained a loss of nearly £500. Great disappointment, both to patrons and management, was evinced at thet non-arrival of the s.s. Mokoia, with the Hildyard Company,on board. It is well known how that the Mokoia picked up the Monowai and returned to Sydney, and was then, turned round again for Auckland. She arrived on Thursday, and the first performance of " A Warning to Women" took place the same evening. The Dunedin Amateur Operatic Society are working away at " The Belle of New York," which is expected to be ready to burst upon an astonished worid at the end of the year. Mr. J. C. Williamson's new Musical Comedy Company .finished their Melbourne season on the 16th inst. amid the same indubitable proofs of their well-founded popularity as had attended them all through their eight weeks' sojourn in the city, and at the time of their departure there could be no possible doubt that they had establish themselves as a powerful and permanent addition to the theatrical attractions of Australasia. The company is now on a visit to South and West Australia, returning to Sydney about the end of October.

Some surprising statistics regarding the travels of " Mother Goose," since the termination of the long seasons in Melbourne and Sydney, which occupied het first six months of the year, nave been prepared. In the last eight weeks (from the beginning of July to the end of August) the pantomime has in its tour of Australia covered no less than 8000 miles by train and steamer, thus averaging a cool thousand miles per week. Another way of looking at itis that for a total of 64 performances they journeyed 8000 miles—that is to say, for every single appearance 125 miles travelling was necessary. These figures bring them down to their return to Sydney, (where they started), and on the 28th August they left on another little jaunt oi J 1000 miles of so, representing their New Zealand tour. They opened in Auckland on the 2nd ■September. Mr. Julius Knight commences an eight weeks' season at the Princess Theatre on the 31st August with an attractive repertoire of three new plays— " Robin Hood," " Brigadier Gerard," and Raffles," all of which New eZaland has thoroughly approved of. The " good old Belle "maintained its reputation as a favourite during the last 'eleven nights of the Royal Comic Opera Company's visit to Sydney, and the audiences throughout were large and enthusiastic. On Saturday (Aug. 31st) they begin a long season in Melbourne with a week's revival of " The Spring Chicken," to be followed up with the first production in Australia of " The Dairymaids," for which a specially strong cast has been formed. Mr. Andrew Mack finishes his successful Melbourne season with revivals of " Tom Moore," " The Way to Ken-

mare, and " Arrah-Na-Pogue," and opens at Her Majesty's Theatre, Sydney, on the 31st August in the firstnamed.

Miss Tittell Brune leaves Australia for England on her holiday trip on the 28th September.